A Story of an Average Trainer
by Shadow Artist 98
Summary: It's a story of an average trainer. Okay, not so average. What did you expect? Please read and review. It's my first story. More than 400 Views. The cover was drawn by me.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Troy. I am 15 years old. Since this is an introduction I will tell you about my team and me. I have dark brown, almost black hair and light brown eyes. I'm around 5 feet tall and kind of lean. I left arm is cut, from a recent accident. My pokemon team consists of:

Toby- My Absol

Ty- My Typhlosion

George- My Sawsbuck

Alexis- My Serperior

Roy- My Volcarona

Sapphira- My Gigalith

Edward- My Kinklang

Jessica- My Spheal

Gabriel- My Lairon

Samantha- My Zebstrika

Anthony- My Trapinch

Yes I know that there are more than six of them, but it's legal as I'm registered as a pokemon researcher. This allows me to carry more than 6 pokemon, but I'm not allow to challenge a champion to a battle for the title, along with that I'm required to submit my findings annually (once a year). My main theme of study is the language in which pokemon speak. Along with a friend of mine, we've designed a prototype translator, well she did most of the programming since I'm not very good at it. I'm just adding more and more pokemon to the translation list. By that I mean that I go out and physically study pokemon and program them into the translator, or the big box I carry in my bag, which makes me glad that I decided on giving it a strong case or else it probably would have been smashed to bits a while ago. My home was in Floccesy Town, but was destroyed during an attack, a month ago. My sister and I were the only ones to survive that, but that was because she was in Undella Town.


	2. Chapter 2

I peeked over the bush I've been hiding behind on Route 20. In a small clearing ahead I see a lone Sunkern. "Roy, use Heat Wave," I ordered, the air quickly heated up as, the Volcarona shot a breath of searing hot air at the Sunkern, scattering glowing red scales. I stood up and dusted the scales off my black shirt and jeans.

"Well it looks like we found dinner," Toby said happily spinning in circles.

"And it's already cooked," Alexis added.

"I think I'm going to pass on the burnt pokemon," I replied, pulling berries out of a nearby tree, "and stick to some berries for now." After gathering a few branches I found I had Ty start a fire so I could cook the berries.

"More for the rest of us," Toby replied cheerfully. With that Toby, Ty, Alexis, Roy, Jessica and Anthony quickly begin eating the Sunkern. Samantha, who shared some electricity with Ed, George and I eat some of the berries. Gabriel, and Sapphira munch on the nearby rocks. Not long afterwards I curl up in my sleeping bag and drift off to sleep. I was in a Pokemon Center, sitting at a wooden table, a silhouette of a girl about my age sitting across from me. I looked down to see a cup full of coffee. It was a bit off, something was in it that wasn't supposed to be. "You can't keep ignoring me, ya know." The girl told me. I looked up at her.

"I think my coffee is poisoned," I replied motioning to the brown-purple mix.

"Don't change the subject." She ordered, throwing my favorite blue jacket with a picture of an Absol on the back, at me.

"From what I know about you, I can safely say if I stopped suppressing you then you'd do something bad, like the poison I'm pretty sure you put in this dream coffee." I replied, avoiding the projectile.

"Then why don't you rid yourself of me?"

"You know if I could, I would. But what do you keep telling me?"

"I'm a reflection of yourself."

"Good job," I congratulated sarcastically, as the world faded away. I woke up next morning thanks to the (at the time, loud and annoying) ring of my Xtransceiver, I answered. It was from my sister in Undella Town. She has brown eyes, lighter brown hair, she's a few inches shorter than me and even though she doesn't like me saying this, her nose is unusually large. "Hello," I asked.

"Troy, is that you?" She said sounding worried.

"Yeah."

"What is that on your back?"

"It's a scythe," I started, gesturing to the black double-bladed scythe on my back. "I made it from some of the materials around our house, with help from my pokemon. I need it so I can fend for myself if I and my team are separated."

"Ah cool, but hey what are you planning to do now?"

"Well, I'm on Route 20 right now. I plan to get to Virbank City and take a boat to Castelia. Then I'll make my way up Route 4, through Nimbasa, onto Route 16. Then it's over the Marvelous Bridge, around White Forest, up Route 14. By then, I should be just outside Undella Town."

"That sounds like a plan. HOLY MOLY! Dani get over here! Elesa, I told you to watch Riley and the others while I spoke to Troy."

"Ok, Good bye."

"Bye." After hanging up the Xtransceiver, I began packing up the campsite and headed off towards Virbank City.


	3. Chapter 3

I can't say that we tried to avoid any battles. We ended up just walking through the route like we owned the place. If any pokemon attacked we beat them back. We did that until we neared Virbank. It looks as if it was under siege. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. There were large groups of pokemon spread throughout, there were some Magnemite, a few Grimer but it was mainly Herdier. "This isn't going to be easy," I stated before returning all of my pokemon. It would be a lot easier to simply sneak in then to battle them all, but I had an idea.

I leaned a branch up against a tree. I quickly grabbed a stone and snuck into the nearest bush. I threw the stone into the branch causing it to snap as if it were stepped on. A few Magnemite ran to see what it was so that left me a window to get past. I jumped in and drop kicked one of them in the face. The others had no idea what happened before I disappeared into the city.

Inside the city was a bit quieter than previous trips. There was almost nobody out and it was around noon. I went and talked to the people who were out and I have to say it didn't sound good. They were running low on food, while the people and few pokemon inside were becoming malnourished. There was little medicine for the sick. The siege needed to end or they'd all die before the week ended. I went to the gym, and I hoped Roxie isn't too busy to help with freeing the city. The gym looked like there was a Tauros stampede, and there was no sign of anyone. I had to assume the worst.

It seemed I'd have to do it myself, if they did that to the gym who knows what they'd do to some weaker trainers. It wasn't the strength of the pokemon themselves that I'd have to worry about, it was their numbers. I saw a lot of them and it doesn't seem like that they'll leave the city without a fight. I sent out all my pokemon. "Anthony, dig some pits on the western side of the town. I'll have to lure most of them into those traps. So Alexis I'm counting on you to blend them in with the environment. The rest of you attack from the ports then split off and attack the northern and southern fronts then flank whatever pokemon are left on the western side. We'll begin at night when we'll have the darkness on our side."

We left when the moon began its ascent into the sky. The first thing I saw was a small campfire. As I neared I was able to make out the forms of many pokemon. My first target would be the Magnemite right in the middle. "That should get their attention," I thought to myself. I sprang from behind a tree and rammed the Magnemite. I then grabbed my scythe swinging the back of my scythe right across a line of Grimer. Then I took off, I didn't run fast enough for me to lose them but fast enough to keep them thinking that they can catch me. I jumped over a pile of leaves, but my pursuers didn't pay it any mind. I looked back just in time to see a Grimer disappear into the pit, the first victim of the many traps. Not long afterwards I heard a Herdier fall into the same pit.

THUD! THUD! THUD! More and more pokemon fell victim to the hidden traps. Eventually I ran out past all the traps and I was able to meet up with Anthony. Most of the remaining pokemon were Magnemite who just floated over the traps. That was good because now Anthony could easily deal with most of them. "Anthony use Mud-Slap," I ordered, Mud shot up from the ground launching 2 Magnemite upwards. I turned to a Herdier who made it past the traps, " Use Faint Attack on that Herdier," I commanded, he managed to hit him but not without taking a nasty Take Down attack. It went on like that for a while. I even had to strike down a few pokemon.

Eventually, the sound of a battle erupted. It was the cavalry, the rest of my team. It looked like they've been fighting wars all their lives. Alexis managed to leaf blade a few opponents and Giga Drained them whenever one enemy was fast enough to harm her. Toby was firing razor winds like a sniper without harming George as he slammed his horns into a pokemon, while using Horn Leech or Mega Horn. Sapphira set up Stealth Rocks so the enemy couldn't escape as Gabriel fired Stone Edges and Iron Tails into the trapped enemies, and if anybody tried to step in the Stealth Rocks would simply smash them. Ed teamed up with Samantha, he would often use gear grind, but would occasionally fire a discharge as it sped Sam up, at some points I couldn't even see her move. Ty, Roy, and Jess took out the most, Ty would often fire off Flamethrowers and whenever he used Earthquake, Roy would lift Jess off the ground, Roy took out large masses with his Heat Wave and Jess froze any others with her Ice Beams.

Eventually the fighting ended and we were victorious. We were happily welcomed in Virbank after the battle. While we did manage to get some information about the other towns, most of it wasn't good news. They eventually found Roxie in the sewer with a few other beaten trainers, which stank literately, and figuratively. After noon well we ended up crashing in the Pokemon Center, and slept into the next morning. Now we just had to find a boat to Castelia, that shouldn't be too difficult, right?


	4. Chapter 4

I've decided to head out to the port to see if anyone is willing to give me a ride to Castelia. All the boats in the port, that weren't sunken, were riddled with holes and appeared to be much damaged. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy who obviously wasn't pleased about the condition of the boats. "Hey you, I need a boat to Castelia are there any I can take?" I called

"Not in this town none of these can sail at the moment," he replied.

"Do you know when there will be one, I need to get to Castelia fast."

"There won't be any until I get them fixed, besides I don't want to sail any of them when the pokemon are breaking them."

"If you get any of them fixed I'll gladly protect your ship from the wild pokemon, just as long as I get to Castelia."

"If you are that confident in your team sure, but if it sinks I'm not rescuing you."

"How long until you can get one up and running?"

"Well with help from my crew 3 days."

"That quick?"

"Yeah, we have done this before."

"Wow, you guys must not build good boats."

"Say that again and I won't give you a ride to Castelia."

"Okay, I won't." I did, however, worry about how well built the boats are, so hopefully I'll be able to reach Castelia with little trouble.

"So it looks like I have a few days then," I mumbled to myself, "what should I do?" I could train Jess since Anthony wouldn't do very well against an ocean-full of water types. I could help with some of the repairs since Virbank was pretty torn up during the siege.

"I might as well help them today and Wednesday, and I'll train Jess tomorrow and Thursday if the boat still isn't ready to leave," I decided. With that I went off and helped whatever townspeople I saw and they were more than grateful for the help, except for this one guy who yelled "I don't need help from some punk kid," or something like that when I asked if he needed help with anything. He then chased my away while trying to beat me over the head with his cane. The tasks were fairly easy, mainly manual labor or running errands. I did get my team to help too, and managed help a lot.

The next day I immediately went out into the woods and begun training with Jess. First I had her attempt to break a tree with her Ice Ball attack. After she eventually broke through the tree I had her use Ice Beam on a less than willing Edward that of course led to her learning Aurora Beam. I found out because the rainbow beam hit me right in the face. During that I had the rest of the team spar even I joined in against Ty. He won by throwing me face first into the ground, after Jess hit me in the face.

"Okay I think I'm going to sit out the next match," I said, my face still stinging. I walked over to a tree and watched them continue training. Eventually, they got too tired to train anymore and I went to the Pokemon Center to have Nurse Joy heal my pokemon. After she returned my pokemon with a smile, I went to one of the available rooms in the center, let out my pokemon so they could sleep in the room and fell asleep in what was pile of pokemon.

The next day I decided to help some more with the repairs. I ate some breakfast served at the Pokemon Center and went off to get to work. I walked to the southern part of town. I helped fix some of the damaged houses. I was helping this one guy fix his roof, when this boy with black hair and blue eyes, who looks to be about 12 years old walks up to me and asks, "Are you the person who fought the wild pokemon?"

"Yes," I replied, a bit puzzled.

"Are you stupid?" he asked angrily.

"I don't think that I am, why do you ask?"

"Your team was almost overpowered by the wild pokemon, and where were you?"

"I was on the western side of town taking care of the wild pokemon over there along with my Trapinch."

"Why was that? You should have fought alongside your team!"

"I was going to draw their attention so that the rest of my team could attack from behind. What about you?"

"I helped your pokemon fend off the wild pokemon." He sounded pleased with himself.

"Well, what are you doing here now?"

"I came here to battle you."

"Can you wait until I finish helping the guy with his roof? You can help too, since you're here."

"Ok but, you better not try to run from the battle."

"I promise you I won't do that." We did finish up the roof soon after and like I promised I set up a small field for a battle. He helped a bit too.

"Before we begin, perhaps we should introduce ourselves? I'm Troy, and you are?"

"I'm Ben," he said. I grabbed one of my Pokeballs and threw it.

"Go Ty," I said, as he appeared from the Pokeball. I looked across the field to see that he has released a Manectric

"I'll go first. Tom use Thunder Fang," he ordered. The Manectric's fangs started glowing and crackling with electricity as he lunged at Ty.

"Ty use Fire Pledge." A geyser of fire rose from the ground effectively throwing Manectric of balance. "Now use Flamethrower." Ty shot intense flames at the Manectric who managed to dodge with only a small burn on his tail.

"Tom use Discharge." He ordered frantically. The Manectric shot bursts of electricity in every direction, as the air crackled with static.

"Ty use Earthquake." I ordered. Ty slammed his arms into the ground causing a ripple in the ground that launched the Manectric into the air, and blocked the electric attack. "Now finish it," I ordered, "use Blast Burn." Ty shot massive flames at the airborne canine. He landed on the ground, unconscious.

"It looks like I lost." Ben said disappointedly.

"Don't get down on yourself, you put up a good fight." I said trying to cheer him up.

I went with him to the Pokemon Center to get our pokemon healed. I told him about my plan to go to Castelia and he jumped on the chance to go. When I asked why he simply brushed off my question, I assumed it was personal business and I left it at that. I went back to the room after getting my pokemon back and eating dinner, and slept like I did the night before, in a pile of pokemon. I can't say this time was very comfortable especially when you have a massive bug that was once thought to be the embodiment of the sun sleeping right next to you.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning I ate a light breakfast, simply because we would be on the ocean and the last thing I wanted was to get sink when we set sail. I met up with Ben outside the Pokemon Center and head out to the port. When we arrived we saw what appeared to be a cargo ship, which made sense because they were running low on supplies. After I managed to find the port manager, I asked him if the boat was ready to sail. "Not yet you'll have to wait another hour or 2," he replied, immediately afterwards asking why there was an energetic 12 year old standing directly behind me.

I replied with a simple, "He's coming with, his Manectric would be quite useful against the water types we may encounter along the way." He didn't seem very happy about it but he relented and allowed him to help. "Since we're here is there anything you need us to do." I added.

"No, my crew can handle it, just don't break anything on the boat."

"If you say so." Thus, Ben and I spent the next hour and a half talking about our teams. As far as he told he had a Manectric, a Heatmor, a Zangoose, a Haunter and a Lantern. By the time the conversation ended the cargo ship looked ready to leave. My thought was confirmed when the port manager told Ben and I to get on board. We did so, and Ben seemed quite happy, for whatever reason he was going to Castelia it must have been important. When we reached the deck, we let out all our pokemon excluding Ty, Roy, Gabriel, Sapphira, Anthony, and Ben's Heatmor all of which would be a last resort, and hopefully we wouldn't have to use them. Ben's Lantern was easily able to keep up with the ship as we left port. At some points his Lantern would disappear deeper into the blue and I would joke to Ben about his Lantern "keeping the bad fishies away," which led to a strange face from him. The face made me laugh, loudly and I ended up looking like an idiot.

The first half an hour was fairly calm, aside from the occasional battle, which were pretty easy. Then it got real crazy. There were a lot of fish pokemon that started jumping on deck, mainly Magikarp or Basculin, and even some Carvanha. I saw one crewmember kick a Magikarp after it hit him in the back of the head, big mistake. It flopped back into the water and the next thing I saw was a very angry Gyrados erupt out of the water. "You just had to kick the Magikarp," I yelled irritated, "Hey Ben, looks like we have a problem." I then gestured to the screeching sea serpent.

"Well, it's about time we had a proper opponent," Ben said excitedly.

"It looks like we found one," with that we begun the tag battle against the serpent. "Sam," I called, looking for my Zebstrika. She immediately answered by leaping over a Sharpedo and landed beside me.

"Is that what you called me over here for?" She questioned sounding a bit disappointed.

"What is wrong with fighting a Gyrados? Were you expecting to battle a Suicune?" I didn't get an answer as the serpent flew across the boat in a failed attempt to hit Sam.

"Okay, the moment it resurfaces hit it with a Thunder, we need to end this quick before or else the battle will drag on." Ben's Manectric was already ahead of me as it was already charging up an electric attack, the sparks crackling off the canine's fur. It ended up being a discharge, which worked in my favor as Sam absorbed the stray bolts with her, Motor Drive Ability. She became a lot faster and was easily able to land a Thunder and duck out of the way of a Hyper Beam that was launched at her. "Don't let it fire another one, use Wild Charge," I ordered, hoping it would be able to deal a large amount of damage. Sam became immersed in a yellow light, and was giving off sparks. Ben knew what was happening and had Manectric fire a Thunderbolt at Sam. It was initially confused at why it was attacking her, but obeyed the command nonetheless. Sam quickly sprang up, smashing her head into the lower jaw of the serpent as it prepared to fire another Hyper Beam, immediately forcing its jaw shut and stopping its attack before it was shot. Obviously, it caused it a lot of pain as it went berserk trying to get at electrified zebra, which had harmed it so.

We eventually manage to beat it back, but Ben did something I didn't expect. He threw a Pokeball at the pokemon that tried to kill us all. He even ended up catching it. "Looks like I may have another strong opponent next time I battle him" I thought. The rest of the wild pokemon were already forced off the boat. It was dark soon after, I decided I might as well go to my sleeping quarters and rest with my team. "If anything happens, tell me," I told one of the crewmembers. Being a large cargo ship, it doesn't move very fast and thus a 6-hour trip for a smaller, faster boat, would take about 36 hours for us. That meant we had about 28 more hours on the boat.

I got about 7 hours of sleep, none of it was very restful. I woke up, still feeling tired. At least we were down to 21 hours left on this ship. I walked up on deck. The first thing I noticed was the thick fog that hung in the air. All that was visible outside the ship was the ocean, even though it was. There really wasn't anything I could do, so we sort of just sat on deck and waited. This went on for about 3 hours, leaving us with 18 more to go. Eventually, I decided to try my hand at fishing, which was boring for the most part. It was mainly cast hook, wait and wait, then there's a bite and you either reel in a fish or an empty hook. I managed to reel in some fish a beat them fairly easily, or they would just flop back into the ocean either way it was still boring. Finally, I gave up. "I don't have the patience for fishing," I thought. I headed back to my quarters.

I pulled out some cards I had in my bag and started playing some card games. At first nobody was interested, but eventually I had at least 3 pokemon wanting to learn how to play. They had a hard time understanding the game, even after I explained it 3 times. At some point I just gave up trying to teach them. "This just proves that you aren't a very good teacher," Ty said jokingly.

"Oh yeah, then what does that say about you?" I retorted. We all laughed, even me. "Nooo!" I shouted as Sam stole the electricity from the outlet burning out the lights. "Why did you do that?"

"I was hungry," she retorted.

"We have the hand powered generator, remember."

"Too late now." The room was completely dark. Eventually we all drifted off to sleep. When I woke I heard screams of terror. I ran up on deck and was taken aback at what I saw.


	6. Chapter 6

There, flying over the ship was a thing of legends, Lugia. "Amazing," I mumbled as it dove back into the ocean, splashing everyone on deck. My team was standing around me when I came back to my senses. "Ok, guys this might be a problem." I pointed to Lugia as it resurfaced, "Don't let it flap those wings," I ordered referring to the legend I heard about it creating 40 day-long storms when it flapped its wings. It was too late, however, by the time I had said the command it had already whipped up a strong wind. I turned to my team to see Sam charging Thunder attack. "Don't," I warned "Most of the boat is covered in water if you aren't careful, you'll zap us all to death." Lugia let loose an Aeroblast on the boat, it almost knocked me off the vessel had it been aimed closer to me. "Jess fire an Ice Beam at it," I ordered, "try to slow it down."

She managed to catch Lugia's wing but it quickly smashed the ice. "Darn." I turned back to my team and started giving orders. Roy chased Lugia towards Gabriel and Sapphira with a Fiery Dance attack. They didn't give it time to avoid as they fired twin stone edges, knocking it back into the Fiery Dance attack. Toby took his turn to attack with a Night Slash; at the same time Ed levitated up and managed to catch him in a Gear Grind attack. It effectively held him until the Night Slash made contact. To my dismay almost no damage had been done to the bird. It made sure I knew this, firing off a Hydro Pump at me. I barely had time to duck out of the way. But it gave me an idea.

I ran to find Ben. "Ben," I called. He walked sleepily out of his quarters,

"What," he asked.

"How did you sleep through all the noise? Never mind actually," I asked but stopped him before he could answer, "We have trouble.

"What kind of trouble?"

"Legendary pokemon trying to kill us type of trouble."

"The worst kind."

"I need you to get everyone off deck it's soaking wet, if we use any electric attacks everyone will be electrocuted."

"Ok," he replied running off. I quickly followed him up deck.

"Keep that thing busy until we can get the crew of the deck, Sam no electric attacks, yet." I could have sworn she smiled when I said yet. She must have really wanted to zap Lugia. I ran to the nearest person and dragged him below deck, as he had been knocked out during the fray. Eventually, we managed to get the deck cleared. I awkwardly tried to climb on Anthony so I could give orders without be electrified when Sam unleashed her fury of electric attacks, one after another. I could see that Lugia was tiring but a lot slower than Sam who used up most of her electricity. I reached for her Pokeball trying to keep her from using up anymore. "Return," I said, as the Pokeball shot a red laser, which put her back into her Pokeball. "It wasn't a Suicune but, it was still a powerful legendary," I mumbled remembering the exchange before the Gyrados battle. Ben met me back on deck, I assume, after, making sure the crew was safe.

"Whoa," he said, staring at Lugia.

"Don't even try catching this one, it is too powerful."

"What think it's too much for me to handle?"

"No, I mean that it will be almost impossible to catch." He didn't listen to me though as he threw a Pokeball at the bird, which it immediately smashed the red ball to bits. I glared at him, or at least where he was because when I looked back he was gone. My feet slid out from under me as Lugia let out another Aeroblast. "Looks like I have to use my last resort." I returned all my pokemon except Toby. "Use Perish Song," I ordered, before covering my ears. He let out a ghastly tune that lead to what sounded like the breaking of a piano key. Lugia heard the dreadful tune as it screeched loudly at me. "Return, Toby." I said putting Toby into the safety of his Pokeball. All that is left to do is wait until the Perish Song did its job. Lugia used recover, the tiny cuts already barely visible vanishing, but it was in vain. His perish count fell and fell until it reached 0 and fainted.

I walked back to my quarters. "That should keep Lugia from attack boats anytime soon." I thought. I checked the clock. It was 8:00. "Good, only 2 more hours." I said. I released my team back into my quarters. "Good job," I congratulated, "you all defeated Lugia, and kept anyone from being killed." We all celebrated in the room, confident after that victory. I was wrong, however.

I went up on deck, though it was raining. I went to the small crowd that formed. They were all looking at something on the deck. I managed to push my way to the front of the crowd. It was a corpse. From the looks of it, it was a human corpse. It looked familiar, but I soon realized that it was Ben. He had died in the battle with Lugia. It looked just like he had just fallen asleep on deck, except he was bleeding from his ears. It hit me, he heard the Perish Song. If you didn't know, Perish Song affects humans differently than pokemon. Whereas pokemon just faint, people actually die when they hear it, hence the name. I knew then that I had killed Ben.

There was one casualty and it was my fault. It sank in. I tried to calmly walk back to my quarters. "It was my fault, I'm the one who told him about the boat. I got him out of his cabin and then had Toby use Perish Song without warning him. It was my fault." I thought guiltily. I stayed in my quarters until we reached Castelia. As I walked off I learned why he was interested in reaching Castelia. I saw what looked like his family huddled over him. Crying over the son, the brother who will never get to live the rest of his life. I failed to get him to Castelia, and I failed to give him a rematch. I know that this might be no reconciliation but I decided that I would reach Undella alive, and keep anyone alive while I can. It would be the only promise to him that I would be able to keep. I don't want to let that happen again.

With my scythe on my back and Pokeballs in my pocket, I set off to Nimbasa, more determined than ever.


	7. Chapter 7

After healing my pokemon in the Pokemon Center, I headed up Castelia Street to Central Plaza and to the northern end of town. I was about to leave when a girl's voice rang out "Hey, you." Instinctually I turned around to see a girl and boy run up to me, they seemed to be related. About the same age as I. The girl had dirty blond hair that reached her shoulders, and what appeared to be hazel eyes, and was a few inches shorter than me. The boy also had blond hair, and green eyes and the same height as me.

"Hi," I said.

"Are you going through Route 4?"

"Yep, that's the best way to get to Undella. Why do you ask?"

"Can we follow you?"

"I don't see why not, but wasn't Route 4 under construction? I expected it to be fairly safe."

"No, they stopped the construction due to an increase in gang activity there."

"Ok, you can come. What are your names?"

"I'm Anna, and this is my twin brother, Tom."

"My name's Troy. Nice to meet you." I said as we all shook hands. "So why are you headed through Route 4?" I questioned.

"We are also headed to Undella. We heard that Sinnoh's champion is there." So, we began walking through Route 4, talking about miscellanies things, well Anna did most of the talking. I mainly listened and occasionally added a nod or a yeah. I learned a lot about them. They are from Nacrene City. They both collected 8 badges. Anna has an Eelektross, an Ariados, an Emboar, a Zweilous, a Clamperl, and a Gothitelle. Tom has a Samurott, a Musharna, an Audino, a Cofagrigus, an Excadrill, and a Cryogonal.

Route 4 looked a bit eerie. The buildings were half constructed and some were just piles of rubble. There isn't sand blowing in the wind, thanks to the half completed buildings. As we walked down the asphalt road, we came upon a portion of the road not protected by buildings and because of this there was a large pile of sand. I tried to walk on top of it and quickly sank. I called out Anthony. "A Trapinch should be able to dig through sand easily," I said, and I was right. He easily dug a path through the sandy barrier, covering Anna and me in sand, and nearly missing Tom who stepped out of the way at the last second. We walked on. The farther along the route we went the more torn up the buildings looked. Then, I noticed something on one of the buildings. "It looks like graffiti." I mumbled.

"Hey, what are you doing in our turf?" asked a male voice. He sounded older than me and his voice was raspy.

"We're just trying to get to Nimbasa," Tom replied. A male about 19, wearing a black jacket and sunglasses, sort of like how I would picture any given thug, jumped down from one of the buildings.

"Then, you'll have to pay the toll."

"Since when was there a toll to get to Nimbasa?" Anna interrupted.

"Since my gang took it over, got a problem with that?" he replied snidely.

"I do," I said, issuing a challenge. He sent out 2 Darmanitan.

"Pay up, or my friends will make you," he sounded irritated. I pulled out Gabriel and Anthony's pokeballs.

"Yeah, I think not," I said, released my chosen pokemon.

"Big mistake, Darmanitans use Flamethrower." He ordered

"Anthony, use Mud Slap," I ordered, "Gabriel use Stone Edge." Anthony stopped both Flamethrowers with his Mud Slap and Gabriel scored a direct hit on one with her Stone Edge. "Gabriel use Automize, Anthony use dig," I added.

"Keep your guard up you two," The guy said to his Darmanitan.

"Gabriel use Iron Head." Anthony rose up from below one of the Darmanitan, throwing it off balance, and Gabriel hit the other with her Iron Head. That one bumped into the other and knocked him into the hole Anthony dug.

"Both of you, use Superpower," He ordered. One of the Darmanitan had managed to grab Anthony and throw him at Gabriel. The other one angrily climbed out of the hole it fell in.

"Anthony, Faint Attack, Gabriel use Stone Edge." Anthony disappeared and reappeared behind the farthest Darmanitan and head butt it, knocking it out. Gabriel missed the other one, but he tripped over his teammate as Anthony caught him in a Crunch attack, knocking him unconscious. Anthony became bathed in a bright light. We covered our eyes and when the light went out, Anthony was now a Vibrava. The guy looked shocked, at either; being beaten or Anthony's evolution. Whatever the reason we passed him no problem.

The rest of the route had more people like him, but they were mainly pushovers. We took turns deciding who fought whom, and it worked out pretty well. Apparently word of what was going on reached their 'Boss' because as we neared the end of the Route, a massive man approached us. He was wearing a black leather jacket, a t-shirt underneath, torn blue jeans and large sunglasses. "What do you want?" I asked him, annoyed. Anna thought I sounded rude to him and proceeded to hit me over the head. I grabbed my head with one hand, but I avoided making a sound.

"I want to recruit you to the Desert Resort Gang," He pretty much yelled enthusiastically at us.


	8. Chapter 8

"What?" We all replied.

"I want you to join the DRG," He said more calmly. We looked at each other. Anna spoke up first.

"We'd rather not, we are just trying to get to Nimbasa," She said.

"Oh well, then I can't let you leave." The last part sounded almost malevolent. He sent out all of his pokemon. He had a Pupitar, a Maractus, a Scrafty, a Magmortar, and a Krookodile. "I'll ask you again, will you join"

"No," I angrily interrupted. I couldn't stand people like him. We were leaving even if we had to use force. I sent out Ed and George. Anna and Tom had the same idea. Anna had sent out her Clamperl and her Ariados. Tom had sent out his Audino and his Cryogonal.

"No fair," he said mockingly, "you're all ganging up on me." 2 more guys came up behind him. And released their pokemon, a Darmanitan and a Scolipede. "That's better," he added.

"Either way, you won't win." I said, trying to make him angry.

"Looks like when I win, I'll have cut out that tongue of yours."

"Ed use Flash Cannon on Pupitar, George use Megahorn on Krookodile." I ordered.

"Clamperl use Scald on Magmortar, Ariados use Pin Missile on Maractus," I heard Anna order.

"Audino, use Thunderbolt on Darmanitan, Cryogonal use Ice Beam on Scolipede." Tom shouted. I assume they've battled together before because their pokemon were working together very well. Pupitar used Iron Defense before it was hit and managed to survive the Flash Cannon. Krookodile didn't endure George's Megahorn. Magmortar jumped out of the way of Clamperl's Scald and shot a Flamethrower at George who managed to take the hit. Maractus' Pin Missile blocked Ariados' Pin Missile. Darmanitan took the Thunderbolt pretty easily. Cryogonal managed to freeze half of Scolipede before it could do anything, and admittedly it looked funny at how it was trying to wiggle out of its icy prison. Scrafty however, went straight for me and hit me in the stomach with its Jump kick attack.

"Cheap shot," I angrily commented, before grabbing Scrafty and hurling it back to its trainer, who caught it. Pointing to Scrafty I ordered "Ed, Zap Cannon. George use Horn Leech, steal all the health from that Pupitar." Ed managed to make contact with Scrafty before its trainer realized what happened, which led to Scrafty fainting and its trainer almost fainting along side it. George had to make his way around Pupitar's Bug Bite attacks and managed to steal what was left of its health before Pupitar collapsed. Clamperl shot a Whirlpool at Magmortar who tried to jump over it and instead landed in the middle of the vortex. Ariados was still exchanging Pin Missiles with Maractus. Audino had disappeared, but there was a hole in the ground that wasn't there previously. Cryogonal slammed into Scolipede, as it was broken out of its ice cube. Then he had Cryogonal use Blizzard, which took out Scolipede, Maractus and froze the Whirlpool Magmortar was trapped in. "Ed, finish him with Zap Cannon," I said. He shot a ball of electricity, which destroyed the frozen Whirlpool. "Oops," I added silently. Audino shot out of the ground slamming into the Magmortar and knocking it unconscious. We started to leave, walking past DRG's "Boss."

"No, you don't," he said, pulling a gun. I didn't need anymore reason, I knocked the gun out of his hand. I grabbed my scythe and smashed the back of the blade into his ribcage.

"Duck," I told Anna and Tom, who did so. I swung my scythe over them and stopped it with DRG's "Boss's" head in between both blades. "Move, and I'll slit your throat," I said darkly, "give me the gun." He slowly handed me the gun. We walked away with the gun still pointed at him. Once we made it out of sight, I dropped the gun and we took off running. As far as we could tell he could have more than one gun. "It looks like I have made another enemy today," I thought. We reached Join Avenue nearing sundown, so we walked inside and ate at the restaurant. As we were leaving, the TV in the restaurant said something that would impact the entire Unova Region.

"We are covering breaking news," the anchor woman on the television said, "we have received reports of the Pc Storage Management Center has been attacked. This attack has rendered all PC Systems inoperable." People were starting to gather. "As of now, transferring pokemon by use of PC is no longer possible." If you had any pokemon in the PC at the time, you should go to Straiton City to help in the finding of any pokemon." Almost immediately most of the trainers left, some were even running. I turned to Anna and Tom.

"That is why I took all my pokemon out previously."

"You knew this would happen?" she asked.

"No, I can't tell the future. It was just a suspicion." We went to the Nimbasa Pokemon Center. We healed our teams and booked 2 rooms in the Center. Tom and I shared a room and Anna had the other to herself. I slept on the floor, which was surprisingly comfortable, and Tom took the bed. We woke and ate breakfast the next morning. "So," I said after finishing the rest of my pancakes, "how about we go a visit Nimbasa's amusement park? It could be fun."

"I'd rather we kept going to Undella." Tom said.

"Come on, Tom, like Troy said, It could be fun," Anna added. That was the end of the argument. He had no chance of changing her mind.

"So, it looks like we're going to the amusement park." I said smiling. We headed straight to the amusement part. The first thing we went on was the Ferris wheel. As it turns out Anna is afraid of heights. She was holding onto her seat like her life depended on it. She started blushing, when Tom started messing with her about her fear of heights. It reminded me of my sister and I. Anna wanted to ride the roller coaster next. Tom was screaming like a little girl. Anna and I were laughing most of the time, mainly because of Tom. We had a few battles while we were there. During one battle, which was a double battle, George and Ty accidentally hit each other. Both of them claimed it was the other's fault, I felt embarrassed for them. They reminded me how fun pokemon battles can be. All in all, it was a pretty fun day even Tom said so. We spent another night in the Pokemon Center. The next day we set off onto Route 16.


	9. Chapter 9

We were headed east to the Marvelous Bridge. I started headed north into the thickening forest. "Hey the Marvelous Bridge is this way," Anna called.

"I know, but there is something I need to check," I replied.

"Well, can it wait?" Tom asked annoyed.

"No, it can't, if I don't check now I'll regret it later. You two can go ahead if you want." I said.

"We're coming with you, if you think you can leave us behind that easily, think again." Anna added.

"Now why would I do that," I replied smiling. We continued walking until we came across a man sitting against a tree.

"I wouldn't recommend going any further. Ahead of here is Lostlorn Forest," He said, not even opening his eyes.

"That is exactly why I am heading this way." He didn't reply. We just kept on walking. After a bit of walking, a clearing came into sight.

"What took you so long?" a voice sounded out. I recognize that voice. I grabbed my scythe and walked into the clearing. On the far end of the clearing was a Zoroark, what was once my Zoroark.

"Hello, Elliot." I said.

"Wait you know him, Troy," Tom asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Why did you want to find him?" Anna asked.

"I guess you deserve to know." I said. "I caught Elliot when he was a little Zorua, right in these woods. He was making rude gestures and swearing like a sailor, despite being as little as he was. He kept making threats all throughout the battle before he was caught. Alyssa took them very seriously and kept a continuous eye on him. Eventually, he evolved and I came to believe that he wouldn't carry out any of the acts he'd previously threatened me with. As a Zoroark he was much more powerful, maybe the strongest of the team. Then that day came, the day he carried out his threat."

It was early autumn, I was walking home from town, and I had been hanging out with a friend. As I walked down the wooded path, I noted the smell of fire in the air. Normally I would have thought nothing of it, as it was fairly common. Yet it only got stronger and stronger as I neared my house. When my home was within sight, it was obvious that the roaring flames was the source of the smell. I took off running towards the burning building, when I was a couple of yards away from diving in, Alyssa pointed out to me, a particular shadow. The reason the shadow was so important, was that it was Elliot's favorite illusion where he'd disguise himself as a free formed shadow, practically invisible. He soon released the illusion once he realized that he burned down the house with the wrong people inside. Although I was his target, he jumped the gun and lit the house on fire with my dad inside. My mother died too, trying to save him from the inferno. He attacked, in an attempt to finish me off, and then escape.

He would have killed me too, had it not been for Alyssa. He stabbed her in the chest when she jumped in front of me. His claw made it all the way through her and only managed to graze my arm. She knew she was done for, and created a black hole in an attempt to take him down with her. Yet he escaped, and I was left at the side of my dying friend.

I pointed to Elliot with my scythe, "He is her killer, so now I am about to avenge her." I turned my attention to the Zoroark. "Elliot, I am here to kill you."

"It looks like you've finally grown a spine," Elliot replied with a demented smile. "But, it looks like you haven't gotten over it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Your eyes hold the same sorrow that they held on that day." He broke out laughing. "I finally get to finish you off, and now there are no imprudent pokemon getting in my way." I started running at him. I closed the gap quickly. I swung at him with as much force as I could muster, and hit him in the ribs, launching him towards his right. He swung at me with his ruby claws, I blocked with my scythe.

"You really think you're taunts can affect me? You're dumber than I thought," I said, I made a downward swing at him. He dodged out of the way and I used the momentum of the swing to circle it back and bring it down in a stronger second strike. This time, he blocked with his claws. We exchanged several blows.

"You're right, you have grown strong, for a puny human."

"Good to know, you're as arrogant as ever." I struck him with the scythe and knocked him back. He changed how he looked; he made himself look like Alyssa. I swung with all my strength and anger.

"What the hell?" Elliot yelled as he made himself return to his original face, "You attacked one of your closest friend without a second thought."

"Alyssa is dead." I said coldly, "The fact that you wear her face like a mask, must mean that you're a glutton for punishment." I got angrier. "It must be fates cruel sense of irony, for you to be killed at my hand, me, the person you wanted to kill right from the start." I grabbed my scythe and put it against his arm. I heard a growl and a tug on my shirt. I turned to see Toby pulling on my shirt. "Let go," I said angrily.

"Don't walk down this path," Toby said pleadingly, "Not the path of revenge. You know better than this." He looked up at me. "You are not a monster. You're hell-bent on killing Elliot; you don't even notice that you're becoming just like him. It will only bring pain to you and us."

"Yet he's already done worst." I retorted.

"So do you plan to kill him, and become just like him." Toby snarled. I put my scythe away.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry."

"What? Is that really all it took for you to give up?" Elliot shouted angrily. "You act like you were going to avenge you're precious Gardevoir, yet you're so easily swayed from goal. You're nothing more than a weak human!" I grabbed a rope from my bag. I grabbed the stunned Elliot and proceeded to tie him to the tree.

"When he realized what was happening he tried to escape. "Don't even think about it." I said as I continued to tie him to the tree. After I finished I examined my handiwork. Then I reached into my bag and pulled out a pokeball with a scratch on the button. "Do you remember this?" I asked Elliot. He nodded. "Good, then you know what happens if you touch the button on this now empty pokeball. So I'll tell you this, if you manage to escape this rope, which I assume you can. I'll let you do whatever you want with this pokeball that was once yours. Then, you can go wherever you want as long as there are no people. If, however, I hear of you going around killing more people, I'll set my entire team upon you. Let me tell you, if I have to do that, not even Arceus will be able to stop them, and I can't tell you what sort of torture they'll come up with," I said with my most chilling grin.

"Why wait?" a demonic voice in my head asked. "You know that it's only a matter of time, I say we kill him now."

"No," I thought in response, immediately silencing the voice. I turned back to Anna and Tom, who surprisingly hadn't left during the fight or were even slightly alarmed by what just occurred. "We're leaving," I told them.

"Okay," the both replied.

"Come on, let's go."


	10. Chapter 10

We continued through Route 16, until we reached the Marvelous Bridge. It looked different from last time. It was in a state of disrepair. From what I could tell, a person hadn't walked the bridge in a long time. It was overrun with pokemon; they were everywhere. As we walked we saw all sorts of pokemon, most were indigenous to the areas on both sides of the bridge, but there was one that didn't belong. It was an Abra, the other pokemon refused to get anywhere near it, they just formed a giant circle around it, as if they were afraid of it. As we walked closer, the strangest thing occurred, a girl appeared beside the Abra, I didn't have enough time to get a good look at her but she had to be 10ish. The other pokemon jumped, when this happened. "Should we go check it out?" I questioned.

"It can't hurt," Tom added. We walked over to her, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Abra, Teleport," she said silently. They were gone before we could do anything else.

"Well that was weird." I said.

"Yeah, what was that about?" Anna replied. We continued walking, none of us could figure out why she would do that. We reached Black City, without anything else happening. We could see White Forest just south of the city. We went into the center and had Nurse Joy heal our teams. While she was taking care of them, we asked about the girl we saw before. One person had an answer to it and it wasn't very realistic, but it was the only answer that made some sense.

"So you know about the girl on the Marvelous Bridge?" I questioned him.

"Yeah, I can tell you about her if you want," he replied.

"Go on then."

"From what I heard, she used to live where the bridge is now. Her house was demolished during the construction and her family was forced to move. Apparently at her new house, she fell into an endless nightmare and never awoke. She died in her sleep, while her father was looking for a cure. That's what I heard at least."

"So, you're implying that we saw her ghost. Is that it?"

"Yep, pretty much."

"Well it's the only lead we got, so for now we'll just leave it at that." I heard our names called out, "It seems like our teams are ready. Thank you for the information." We went back to the counter and retrieved our pokemon and booked rooms for the night.

We walked out onto Route 14. The first thing I noticed was the thick fog, I could barely see 5 feet ahead of me. "Is it always so foggy?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think it has something to do with Undella Bay." Tom answered. The first thing we did was walk down off the large hill that we entered the route on. It wasn't even the tallest hill there, but it was tall enough to have more than one waterfall. The larger one also had a waterfall, which ended, on the hill we were on. After we made it down, we came across 2 bridges; one had a fisherman sitting on it, the other had a man dressed like he was waiting for a fight. The first bridge we passed without a problem, the fisherman didn't care since we didn't disturb his fishing. The second bridge proved to be a problem, as the guy wanted a battle before he let us pass. He sent out a Throh.

"How about a one-on-one battle," he challenged.

"I'll take you on," Tom stated proudly sending out his Samurott. Throh attacked first, throwing Samurott into the water, which was a bad idea. Samurott shot a Hydro Pump out of the water at Throh, knocking it into the river. Now he was in Samurott's environment, I didn't see what happened next but I saw a blue blade rise out of the water and Throh followed. Disappointed, the guy let us pass. We walked until we reached the beach.

"We're close to Undella now," I said excitedly. We followed the beach that formed almost a half box around the western edge of the bay. Eventually, we reached Undella Town. Following the tradition that I had formed the first place I went was the Pokemon Center. I had my team healed and as I turned to leave I bumped into a familiar person. Standing in front of me was my sister. "Hey, Gretchen." I told her.


	11. Chapter 11

"I never had the chance to ask you. Why didn't you have your Gardevoir Teleport you here?" Gretchen asked.

"I'll explain later," I said a little sad, "where you staying, and who do I thank for putting up with you?"

"I'm staying in Caitlin's villa with Elesa and Cynthia, I'll show you," she said annoyed. She took me over to this villa it was pretty nice. She went in, "wait here a minute," she told me.

"Yeah, no problem." I looked around, a few people looked puzzled at why I was outside the villa Sinnoh's Champion is staying in. I saw this one girl; she had light brown hair that covered one eye and reached down her waist. The eye that was visible looked hazel. She quickly followed my gaze and disappeared into a group of people. "Weird," I thought. I turned to see the door open.

"Okay you can come in." As I walked in two girls greeted me, the one on the right was Elesa, and I had remembered her face from when I battled at her gym. The other one, I assumed to be Cynthia, she wore a lot of black and was a few inches taller than me. "Elesa, you know Troy. Cynthia this is Troy. Troy this is Cynthia." She introduced.

"Nice to meet you Cynthia, and good to see you again Elesa. Gretchen wasn't any trouble, was she?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Gretchen said motioning to my arm.

"Oh, I have some things to tell you. You two can listen if you want." They all stayed and listened as I told them about everything that happened before my house was destroyed to me arriving at Undella Town. I didn't leave out any details.

"Sounds like you went through a lot of trouble to get here," Cynthia said.

"Don't forget that Tom and Anna would like to battle you." I replied. She smiled in response.

"So, Elliot is still out there." Gretchen asked.

"Yeah but if he knows what is good for him, he'll keep out of trouble." I replied. "I better get going, I'm going to stay in the Pokemon Center tonight." We all said our goodbyes and I left. There were a lot less people out now. I headed to the Center booked a room and went to sleep.

I had a quiet sleep; well it was until a loud banging on my door woke me up. "What," I asked sleepily.

"Good morning to you too," said the person on the other side of the door. I walked over to the door.

"Good morning, why are you knocking at my door Gretchen?" She handed me a pair of plain blue swim trunks.

"We are going to the beach."

"Isn't like more than half of Undella a beach?"

"You know what I mean."

"Thanks."

"No problem." I shut the door as she left. I put on the swim trucks and surprisingly they fit. "How?" I asked myself. I left wearing my swimsuit, and a white t-shirt and my normal sneakers. I walked out onto the now empty beach. I easily found Gretchen, Anna, Tom, and Cynthia. There was a blanket with an umbrella already set up.

"Took you long enough." Gretchen said jokingly.

"Sorry." I barely had enough time to say that before a beach ball hit me in the face and flew back to Tom.

"Nice catch," he said laughing.

"Thanks, I try," I replied laughing. Everybody had let out their teams except me, so I let them out. Some of them played in the water, and some just sat up on the beach doing whatever they felt like. Then I looked behind me to see a girl, it was the same girl from yesterday. "Weird," I thought again. I swam in the water with Jess; she seemed to be enjoying it the most. She swam surprisingly fast I could barely keep up. I kept swimming after her, which spawned a huge game of tag. There were wild pokemon, trainers, and their pokemon. It was complete chaos. At one point I was swimming after a wild Frillish, and I swam into something, it wasn't a Frillish because I didn't swim through it. I backed up, wiping the water off my eyes. It was that girl from earlier; she was wearing a white bikini. "Sorry," I apologized, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied quietly.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Melissa, and you are?"

"I'm Troy, were you in the game?"

"Yeah."

"Have fun being it, most of them are hard to catch." I yelled as I quickly swam away. She quickly chased after me. I was one of the slower targets so I was probably one of the better choices. I dived under the water trying to lose her but she was persistent. I swam between a trainer and his Dewott who I think were part of it and she went after the trainer. "I think I lost her," After I said that, I was dunked under the water. I resurfaced gasping for air and she was right in front of me smiling.

"I caught you," she said happily.

"Oh, did you." I said. I said picking her up and throwing her back in the water. She resurfaced and looked at me with a puzzled look. "That was for dunking me," I laughed. We continued the game after that talking when we had the chance. Eventually, Tom and Anna found me, I swear they are almost always together; it's a bit weird. "Hi," I greeted them.

"It's getting late, so were going to head to bed."

"Okay, I'm going to stay out here a little longer." Tom gave me a not so discreet thumb up.

"What was that about?" Melissa asked me.

"I met them in Castelia, we helped each other get here. I think they're worried about a recent decision I had made." I said trying to keep her from figure out what he actually meant.

"Was it important?"

"Yeah but, look, it's a long story."

"You don't want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly, let me ask you, why you were avoiding me the day I arrived."

"What makes you think that?" She asked blushing.

"If I remember correctly when I first saw you, you hid behind some people."

"I'm shy," she replied blushing. We talked a little more about miscellaneous topics and eventually, it got dark and we decided to head out.

"See you tomorrow," I told her smiling. I headed back to the Center. I was pretty happy, I got her Xtransceiver number. When I reached my room, Tom was there, smiling.

"So you going to tell me what happened?" he asked jokingly.

"I got her number," I said smiling.

"Congratulations man," He said cheerfully, "You better be careful, though, I'm not sure Anna approves."

"Why is that?"

"Anna thinks that she's has an ulterior motive, I think that Anna's just being paranoid."

"Well, that good to know?" I replied not sure how to feel about it. "I'm going to bed, night." I grabbed my blanket and slept on the ground, because Tom had already taken the bed.


	12. Chapter 12

I ate breakfast at the center. I hadn't decided on what to do now. "I could go to Lentimas Town since all I had to do is walk through Reversal Mountain, or I could head back south and take the Black Tower Challenge in Black City. I could stay here until the World Tournament Starts in Driftveil City." I thought, "No matter what I decide to do next, I'm just going to stay here and relax for a little. That Elliot thing has me a little on edge." I headed back to my room, gathered my team and headed out to the beach. "Now I know what Gretchen has been doing since I last saw her," I muttered. I set out my blanket on the sand. I let out my team. "They deserve some rest too," I thought, sitting on my blanket. Most of them decided to lie on the beach. It was a beautiful day.

"Room for one more?" asked a feminine voice. I turned around, to see Melissa in a pink tank top, and shorts.

"Hi Melissa, sure you can join me." I replied. She sat down next to me.

"So, you going to tell me what happened?"

"Are you still interested?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'll tell you." I told her about what happened with Elliot. She looked a little surprised. "Now you understand why I questioned my decision."

"Yeah, but why let him smash the pokeball?"

"Well, he despised it. I was hoping for it to be sort of like a peace treaty."

"You sounded like you were truly intending on killing him, but you let him go. I don't think I agree with what you did."

"Well, it hopefully won't matter. There may be a chance that he'll completely isolate himself from the humans. That would be the best result."

"And the worst?"

"I'll have to kill him. At least to keep him from killing more." She looked a bit grim, after that. "Don't worry, he'll stay out of trouble at least for a little while. For now let's just enjoy ourselves," I added, trying to cheer her up. She smiled a little. I lied down on the blanket and looked at the sky, not a single cloud. I smiled. "At least I'm here now," I said. Almost on cue, Gretchen, Tom and Anna walked up. "Hey guys," I told them. Tom and Gretchen were more than happy to join us but Anna wasn't as excited.

"Come on Anna, I won't bite." Melissa said in a sweet voice. She reluctantly joined us. We talked for a while, even Anna added to the conversation. "So how did you get Gardevoir?" Melissa asked.

"I've been wondering the same thing." Tom added.

"She was a parting gift from a friend." I said. The conversation carried on. It lasted a while. Ty walked up to me and nudged me in the back. "Oh you want to spar tough guy?" I asked him. He nodded. "Okay, but I'm winning this time." We moved over to an empty part of the beach. "Ready?" I asked him. He charged at me. I sidestepped out of the way and tried to kick him in the chest, but he blocked it with both arms. He went in for a kick of his own, aimed at my head. I put my right arm out and stopped it. I punched at him and landed a hit on his torso. We both stepped back. I went in for a flying sidekick. He stepped out of the way and caught my foot. He lifted me, and then threw me behind him. I landed on my side but got up easily. He ran at me on all fours, this meant he was going for a low attack. I jumped over him and landed on his back. I grabbed him by his stomach and lifted him as best I could and threw him on his back. "Okay let's stop for now," I said panting. I sat down in the sand next to Ty. "I told you that I would win this time."

"Yeah, but I let you win," he laughed.

"Sure you did, big guy." I joked. I looked over at the rest of the group. It looked like most of them watched the match, even a few people I didn't know. I went back over to the group. "Looks like I attracted a crowd." I said.

"It isn't often people are seen physically fighting pokemon. Especially since Ty is bigger than you." Gretchen said. The crowd had dispersed.

"Ty isn't that much larger than me."

"Yeah, he is. He's got a few inches height wise and I'm pretty sure is heavier than you." Her point was proven.

"At least they won't bother me," I said smiling. "Or else, I'll send Ty after them" I joked gesturing to a nearby group of people, who quickly backed away. We broke out laughing. "I better stop or there will be nobody left on the beach," I laughed. Eventually, we went back to a semi normal conversation. There was a lot of random things being said and everyone laughing, it was fun. I had to ask. "So, Anna, Tom now that we're in Undella, what are you two going to do after you battle Cynthia.

"We don't know," They replied in unison. Hopefully it won't happen very often, it'll get annoying before too long.

"At least I'm not the only one." I added. I lied down on the blanket. "Right now I plan to stay here for a while, after that I don't know."

"Good," Melissa said quietly. We talked for a little while longer before Gretchen decided to head back to the villa and go to sleep.

"Hey Troy, can I talk to you?" Anna asked.

"Um, sure." I replied. We walked away from the group.

"I don't-" I cut her off.

"You don't trust her."

"How did you-" I cut her off again.

"Tom told me. He said that you think that she's playing me. What makes you say that?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"It's kind of personal."

"I'll respect that, but please give her a chance. It's nice having you watch my back, and I thank you for letting me know that much. I'll be careful."

"Okay," she said. I knew she wasn't happy that I didn't take her advice completely, but I think she was a little relieved that I would at least keep an eye on Melissa, I hope. We walked back to the group.

"Everything okay?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, everything is okay." I replied. We talked for few more hours, until I decided to head back to the center for the night.


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up to find Tom still asleep. It was about 6 in the morning. I decided to head outside. I walked through the empty lobby of the Center. When I looked out the glass doors I saw a familiar face. It was the DRG's leader. "If he followed Anna, Tom and I up here it might not be good," I thought, "I'll just take care of him now and take him to the police, easy enough. Gabriel, Ed we have a problem."

"What is it? And what did you do?" Ed asked.

"The leader of the DRG is here, I think he followed us." That shook the fatigue out of them. "You two won't be affected by a gun if he has one." I said confidently. "I'm counting on you guys to knock him out. So, that way the police can take care of him. Ed identify him before you attack, we don't want to attack some poor guy who just looks like him."

"Okay, if it isn't him, I'll let you know. If it is him and he has a weapon, I'll just begin attacking him." Ed replied. I pulled out my Xtransceiver.

"Go ahead. Gabriel follow him, and provide backup if need." They walked over to him, without him noticing. When they reached him, he took noticed and realized who they were. He pulled a gun on them. "Idiot, I muttered, "He does know that bullets don't usually work against steel types. Not even Lucario most of the time." I called the local police.

"Hello, this is Undella Police. What is the state of your emergency?" asked the operator.

"There is a guy on the beach, pointing a gun at my Kinklang and Lairon."

"The police are on their way. Try to keep out of his sight. Where are you now?"

"I'm in the Pokemon Center. My Kinklang and Lairon are keeping him at bay. So hurry." I hung up after that. "Ed," I ordered, "Flash Cannon." Ed didn't hesitate he shot a gray beam of light at his torso, making him drop the gun. "Gabriel get his gun." She ran over and took it in her mouth to me. "Thank you," I told her as she put the gun in the sand. I walked up to, the man, as he recovered from the attack. He looked at the sand around him, obviously looking for his gun. Then he looked up at me, his face became angry. "Sorry," I told him, "but Gabriel hid your gun, and I didn't bring my scythe. It looks like you won't be killing me today. However," I said referring to the policemen who ran onto the scene, "the police would like to have a word with you."

"Who cares if he or you have no weapons, kill him, snap his neck, strangle him," the voice in my head pleaded. I quickly silenced it, the last thing I wanted to do was listen to it.I returned my two pokemon as the cops arrested the man. I told them where the gun was and they told me that he had a warrant for crimes varying from assault to murder, and that I wouldn't have to worry about him. My bet is that he'll never get out of jail. Tom heard the sound and came out side.

"What's going on?" he asked sleepily.

"You remember the boss of DRG?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"He followed us here. So, I had him arrested. From what I've heard he won't be getting out of jail for a while. If they don't plan to have him executed."

"Good to know, he won't be bothering us."

"I'm going back to bed." I said heading inside.

"So am I." He said as he followed. "Before I forget," he added. He punched me in the arm.

"What was that for?"

"That was for waking me up." He said as he went back to sleep in the bed. I slept a little on the floor.

I woke up again at about 11. I was hoping that nobody would confront me about the scuffle earlier. I ate breakfast, and left. There were a few people asking about loud noises earlier in the morning, but nobody had an answer, luckily. I headed back out to the beach; it's one of the few things that Undella Town had. I set up my blanket like I had yesterday, and let my team out. I fooled around with my team for a while. I looked over and I saw a not so happy Melissa, in a flowery dress. "Melissa is something wrong?" I asked.

"I saw what happened this morning." She said angrily.

"You saw that?" I said laughing a little.

"It's not funny, he could have killed you." She was even angrier.

"Good job, Troy, you stepped on a landmine. Gotta be careful now." I thought. "Sorry, but I know that. I took his gun, so he couldn't shoot me and contacted the police, once I knew." I said trying to calm her down.

"That doesn't make up for the fact that you randomly attacked the guy."

"That guy was a gang leader from Route 4 that, as far as I know, followed me here."

"How many more people are trying to kill you?"

"As far as I know, it was Elliot and that guy, whose name I never learned."

"This isn't funny."

"I know that but come on, that guy was going to kill me on Route 4 because I turned down his request for us to join, and I already told you what happened with Elliot."

"You can't let people who try to kill you live."

"Yeah I know, so I won't do it anymore." Melissa was still angry but I think I stopped her from killing me. I just sat there with Melissa glaring daggers at me. "I wish that there was some way to stop her from being so angry, but as far as I know there isn't one." I thought. "I give up, what do you want me to say?" I told her.

"I don't know." She replied.

"I don't plan to let anyone do that anymore, and nobody was harmed. I'm asking you to forgive me."

"I'll forgive you, but I won't forget it." She said reluctantly.

"Thank goodness." I thought, a little relieved. She sat down beside me, and I put my arm around her. "Trust me okay. I haven't died yet."

"Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean that it won't."

"Something isn't right, I have too many people worrying about me," I laughed. "It's nice to know, you care about me so much," I teased. She blushed.

"Oh, be quiet, you." We were smiling now. I laid down and she laid down with her head on my arm. It was nice, and I was happy. I looked over at my team.

"What are you laughing at? I'm still the luckiest guy here." I told them jokingly. That caused them to laugh even more, but I think that put me on Melissa's good side. I looked over to see her smiling at me. "Yep, definitely on her good side." I thought to myself, smiling back at her. I heard footsteps. I didn't have to look up. "Hello Tom and Anna."

"How'd you know?" Tom asked. They were both obviously surprised.

"There were two sets of footsteps, you two are usually together." I told them. Anna wasn't very happy, probably because I was with Melissa again. I just smiled at them. As far as I could tell she didn't mean me any harm, even when she was angry with me earlier.

"So you two, you going to battle Cynthia today?" I asked.

"Just me today," Anna replied, "Tom gets to battle her tomorrow."

"Good luck." She still didn't look happy. "So, when will it start?"

"About an hour," she replied, "so I'm going to get ready."

"Good plan," I complimented. She let out her team and got in some last minute practice, she was working with her team's moves, when Cynthia arrived.

"Your opponent is here," I told Anna. She turned to face Cynthia. They stood a ways apart and faced each other. Anna sent out her Clamperl. Cynthia must have wanted to end it in one sweep, she had sent out her Garchomp. It roared at the aqua blue clam. Anna ordered Clamperl to use ice beam. It shot the freezing blast at the dragon that easily avoided it. It smashed the Clamperl with the claw on its wing, I think it was a Dragon Claw. Whatever it was it knocked Clamperl out in one hit. She sent her Gothitelle out next. She restrained Garchomp with her Psychic, but the dragon broke free easily. It fired a ball of teal ball of energy at Gothitelle. "Dragon Pulse," I thought to myself. Gothitelle took the hit, barely staying conscious. Gothitelle fired strange blue flames at Garchomp. They hit but didn't do any damage. Garchomp knocked it out with another Dragon Pulse. There was a burn on its chest, I see now. She had used a Will O' Wisp. She switched the unconscious Gothitelle out with her Zweilious. Garchomp tried to strike it with a Dragon Claw but Zweilious was too fast. It managed to avoid them somehow. It landed a Crunch attack on Garchomp. Garchomp just fired a Dragon Pulse at the Zweilious biting its wing. It hurt itself in the attack while knocking off the Zweilious. Garchomp fired another Dragon Pulse, which Zweilious blocked with its own Dragon Pulse. Garchomp didn't waste any time. It flew in quickly and finished off Zweilious with Dragon Claw, but the burn took a toll on Garchomp.

Cynthia switched it out with her Spiritomb. Anna sent out her Ariados. Ariados shot a Pin Missile at Spiritomb. It took the hit easily, and fired a Shadow Ball back. Ariados dodged it and got in close with a Poison Jab, this time Spiritomb dodged and hit it with a close range Shadow Ball, knocking it a safe distance away. It followed it up with a Dark Pulse at the stunned Ariados, hitting it dead center. Anna switched the arachnid out with her Eelektross. The Eelektross fired off multiple Thunderbolts at Spiritomb, dealing a lot of damage. Cynthia responded by having Spiritomb fire an Ancient Power back. It hit Eelektross, but that only made it angry. Anna had it finish Spiritomb off with Crunch. Cynthia returned Spiritomb and sent Garchomp back out. Garchomp fired a Giga Impact, which knocked Eelektross out. Anna was on her last pokemon, her Emboar. Emboar exploded onto the beach, ready to battle the dragon. Anna had Emboar strike Garchomp with a Brick Break while it was still recovering from the Giga Impact. "It looks like Garchomp is tiring," I thought. The beach shook, Garchomp had used Earthquake. It threw Emboar around, who was trying to aim a Flamethrower at Garchomp. It couldn't hit it, because of the shaking ground. Garchomp finished the battle with one last Dragon Claw. Anna thanked Cynthia for the battle and went to heal her team. "Wow," I said, "Cynthia's powerful." Melissa turned to me.

"Stop staring," she told me.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"That you like her."

"N-no," I stuttered, my face heating up, "I don't like her, not like that." I looked away, my face still red.

"Hey," Tom interrupted, "There are people here. Do that some other time." I looked up at him, my face still red. I looked over to see Cynthia laughing as she walked away.

"Tom," I asked, trying to turn the tables on him, "How are you going to beat Cynthia's Garchomp?"

"I don't know," he replied laughing a little.

"You better hurry you're almost out of time," I teased. I headed back to the center later, when it started getting dark. I entered the lobby to see a mass of people gathered around the television.

"The battle in Mistralton with the enraged Zoroark still continues," I heard the reporter say. I forced my way to the front and looked at the pokemon on the television.

"There was no doubt about it," I thought, still shocked.

I went immediately to get Tom. "Tom," I said knocking on the door, "we have a major problem."

"I know its Elliot, he replied, shocked.

"Then, you know what I must do. I have to go, I going to see if I can get Gretchen to come with me. I'll have to say goodbye, to Melissa and go."

"If he attacked there then Anna and I will stay here. Something tells me that he'll have followers." I ran out of the room to find Gretchen. I ran to the villa knocking on the door, strongly. Elesa answered.

"Where's Gretchen? Elliot's back and I think he has followers. We got to go to Mistralton now, he's attacking the city." I added quickly. "You might want to head to Nimbasa I think he has help, and he's going to attack other cities as well." She stepped to the side. I ran to Gretchen and grabbed her arm. I explained the situation in one word. "Elliot." Her face grew pale. "We're headed to Lentimas Town, I have to take care of one thing okay." She nodded, as I ran off. I ran to where Melissa was staying. I knocked on her door. She answered quickly. "He's back Mistralton got to go," I blurted out.

"You aren't leaving me behind," she said. "Let me grab my team."

"I didn't know that you were a trainer."

"Well, I am. So, where we headed?"

"Mistralton, we'll take the cargo plane from Lentimas." We ran back to Gretchen, who was waiting at the entrance to Reversal Mountain. We ran to through the dormant volcano, we ignored other trainers who tried to battle us, avoiding the stalagmites and stalactites that littered the cave. "If only we had time to explain, but we don't." I thought. We eventually made it out of the volcano and into Lentimas Town. We ran straight to the landing strip. "We need to get to Mistralton, now. There is big trouble." The person knew what was happening because they let us on without a question. The plane took off immediately after we sat in a couple of the seats. I clenched my fist, "He isn't living this time." I said angrily. I received some worried looks from Melissa. I had to put that out of my mind for now. "He had too many chances." I added, still clenching my fist. The plane ride took half an hour. They landed quickly probably because of the ongoing battle. I was right about him having followers; Elliot was fighting alongside a Heatran. The trainers were barely holding their own against the pair, much less the unknown number of wild pokemon. "It's his coup de grâce," I said grimly. I pulled out my scythe. "Just one more obstacle." I said grinning.


	14. Chapter 14

I sent out my team, Gretchen sent out her Sheilgon and her Jolteon, and Melissa sent out her Lilligant and her Reuinculus. "Everybody get yourselves and your pokemon back." I ordered they did so, but probably because they were curious as to what was going on. "Ty, do it," I told him. He took a couple steps forward and snapped his fingers/claws and the area in front of him exploded in flames catching nearby trees on fire and scorching many wild pokemon. Heatran protected Elliot from the blast, however. "Ok, you can continue on, be careful, the large red one there," I warned pointing to Heatran, "is a legendary, the one from Reversal Mountain, use powerful water types and ground types only." My team took spread out to help deal with the wild pokemon. Gabriel, Sapphira, Jess, and Anthony took on Heatran. Ty protected the trainers, and Toby watched my back. I swung my scythe at Elliot who blocked it with his claws. Toby used that chance to attack it with a Night Slash, which Elliot avoided at the last second.

"I was holding back last time," Elliot started, "but not this time. This time, I-," I swung at him with my scythe, interrupting his sentence.

"Quite frankly," I replied as he blocked my scythe, "I do not care. I have another reason to end your life so I'll take it." I pushed him back. Toby and I swung at him from both sides; he blocked the attacks with his claws. I reversed the swing of my scythe sending it back the other direction. He jumped out of the way; I almost decapitated a nearby Lilligant, who looked shocked. I quickly pulled the weapon away and got back within striking range of Elliot and swung upwards at him. He had been expecting it and jumped over me. I brought my scythe over my head, continuing the swing and brought it down on Elliot, who caught it between his claws. I smiled as Toby ran in with another Night Slash; he jumped out of the way, receiving a small scratch. He smiled back. Heatran jumped at me.

"No you don't," yelled Sapphira as she rammed him away at the last second.

"Thanks," I said before running after the Zoroark. I followed him into a deeper part of the woods, quickly catching up. He slashed at me the moment I was within his sight; he missed his mark and gave me a small scratch on my arm. I swung at him, from the right and he ducked. I spun the scythe around me as I brought it back for another swing carrying the momentum of the previous one. He jumped this time, bad move. Toby flew over my scythe and landed a Night Slash directly on his left arm. "I don't think you'll be able to use that anymore." I said, swinging at him from the left.

"I can do with one," he replied blocking it with his right claw.

"Oh can you?" I asked sarcastically, before jumping out of the way of Toby's Razor Wind. It pushed him back against a tree. I swung downwards at him, and he ran behind me, swinging his right claw at my neck. I put my right hand up and caught his claw, leaving my scythe in my left hand. "You're slipping," I added. With my left hand I dropped the scythe and grabbed the same claw. I started to spin him around, picking up speed. I let go of him, after he reached what I thought a decent speed; he flew back, and landed on his feet. I grabbed the scythe with my left hand holding the bottom of it and swung it like a baseball bat, too caught up in the moment to care at how ineffective it was, knocking him further back. Running towards him, I swung my scythe around and stopped it with his head between the blades. "You aren't leaving." I said darkly before pushing the dull end of the blade closest to me, to his throat then pulled back bringing the sharp edge against his spine. He fell to the ground. "Come on, we aren't finished here," I told Toby, as we started heading back to the main battlefield.

I had reached the main battlefield. "Trainers," I shouted, "stand down now. I am taking the lead in this fight." There were few trainers now, and there weren't anymore wild pokemon, only Heatran remained. I ran at him with my scythe he saw me coming and jumped out of the way. Anthony followed me up with a Mud-Slap. Heatran didn't have time to react and his side got covered with mud. Heatran retaliated with Lava Plume, shooting lava into the sky, causing to rain down around it. I had difficulty avoiding the raining lava. The ground was polka dotted with drops of the molten rock. I ran back to confront the legendary with another strike, avoiding the lava droplets along the path. I swung at it from my right, catching it in the side, but the blow bounced off its hide. I jumped back, not letting it out of my sight. Jess shot an Ice Beam at it. Sam added a Thunder, Ed fired a Zap Cannon, Sapphira and Gabriel shot Stone Edges at it. They all made contact, cloaking Heatran in smoke.

Heatran jumped out firing a Heat Wave. "Roy," I shouted, and Roy fired his own Heat Wave back, matching Heatran's. George took this opportunity to ram Heatran from my left, with a Megahorn, stopping his Heat Wave. Roy didn't however and he managed to hit him with it, dealing little damage. Toby attacked after the Heat Wave subsided, using Psycho Cut. He landed a slash on Heatran and backed off as Gretchen's Jolteon landed a Thunderbolt on it. Alexis followed it up with Aqua Tail; she ducked out of the way as Sam slammed Heatran with Wild Charge. Heatran fired off a Flamethrower. He wasn't aiming for the pokemon; he aimed at me. I had no time to react; the flames were within feet of me, creating a blinding light. At the last moment, something stopped it. The light died down, I could see it. There was a Sealeo blocking standing in front of me. It clicked immediately; it was Jess, she evolved.

"Stop gawking," she teased, "I see you have a thing for powerful females."

"Yeah maybe," I laughed, "but I prefer them being the same species as me." Things turned more serious when Heatran moved in for an Iron Head attack. Ty knocked him off course with Blast Burn. "Let's take care of him," I told her seriously.

"Right," she replied determined. I ran ahead with my scythe at the ready. Jess fired an Ice Beam at Heatran, it tried to dodge but Roy interrupted its escape with Bug Buzz. The Ice Beam froze its side; I slammed the frozen part with my scythe, smashing the ice. Jess followed it up with Ice Ball, slamming into Heatran's face, bouncing off and rolling around for another attack. He went to interrupt it with Flash Cannon; I smacked his head with one of the blades, which bounced off his iron mask, grabbing his attention. Sapphira shot her own Flash Cannon when it turned its attention to me. Alexis took that chance to slam its back with another Aqua Tail, catapulting her out of Jess's returning Ice Ball attack. She landed the hit, and rolled back out for another strike. Gabriel took this chance and hit him with Iron Tail. Heatran fired off another Lava Plume. The lava rained from the sky. It threw off Jess's attack and she couldn't continue the Ice Ball attack. We now formed a circle around Heatran. George slammed him with Giga Impact, Heatran turned to face the immobile buck. I swung at his legs when his back was turned and he fell onto his knees.

The team was tiring, I could tell, Heatran was too, but it wasn't going down without a fight. I pulled out a pokeball, considering whether or not to try to catch it. "No, last time I tried that I ended up with Elliot," I thought, putting away the device. I ran over to Heatran and dropkicked it in the face it didn't budge. Ed took the opportunity to hit it with Gear Grind. Jess and Alexis went in for a twin Aqua Tail attack, both of them smashing into its legs. "Keep aiming for the legs," I ordered, "don't let that thing walk anymore." I slashed from my left, at its front legs. It opened its mouth to fire another Flamethrower at me. I swung my scythe upwards, slamming the back of the scythe into its chin, closing its mouth. Jess fired another Ice Beam at it, freezing it shut. Sapphira attacked its back legs and Ty and I attacked the front. Heatran fell to the ground unable to stand anymore.

I returned my team, except for Jess; she was probably best for keeping Heatran under control. There was a flash of light beside Heatran I shielded my eyes. When the light subsided there was an Alakazam. "Sorry," it said telepathically, "but Heatran is part of our plan." I ran to the Heatran, grabbing it before we were teleported. We ended up in a large room, the length of a football field, with a high ceiling to match. The floor was marble, there were pillars forming two parallel lines down the length of the room. At the far end was a man; he was dressed like a king, crown and all. I looked around Jess wasn't there. I walked towards the man. As I neared I saw that he had a cane in his left hand.

"Hello again," a familiar voice rang out. I continued walking towards the man, stopping a few feet short of him. The man, was no human, I realized this when he turned into Elliot. "It's good to see you again," he added, "having fun killing my illusions?"

"Yeah," I replied smiling, "but that isn't why I'm here. I want to know what your plan is."

"I know better than to tell you that." He added, "but I'll tell you this much, Unova will die. Everyone except a certain few that I have already decided." He started, "kill him." An orb of light shot out of the darkness behind the pillars ahead of me. I was frozen in place with no way to defend myself.

"Dang," I muttered, "I forgot my scythe." As the orb neared at its breakneck speed the light increased. It almost made contact, if it hadn't been for the bolt of lightning that shot out from behind me, detonating the sphere before it made contact. I looked behind me to see Gretchen and her Gothitelle, just as Gothitelle grabbed my shoulder and we were instantaneously back in Mistralton, the only change being the lava which had cooled and begun to harden. I turned around looking for him, he wasn't there. Melissa came running up to me.

"Where'd you go?" Melissa asked, hugging me. "We were worried."

"I don't know, some sort of castle. That's beside the point, Elliot is up to something, and it isn't good." I replied, deep in thought. She looked at me shocked.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"No," I replied. The expression on my face told her that I wasn't joking. "We have time thought, Heatran won't be able to do much for a while." We headed to the center, only to be swarmed by reporters, like Durant to a picnic. I couldn't understand any of them considering the fact that they were all trying to speak at once.

"No comment," Gretchen replied for me, before we headed inside. Once inside, she whispered to Melissa and me, "it's better to avoid telling them anything, so to avoid causing a panic."


	15. Chapter 15

Next thing I know, I am in an empty, white room. "Where am I?" I asked, expecting no reply.

"We are in your dream," a disembodied voice replied.

"Who are you, then?" I asked. A familiar face took form in front of me. "Alyssa, what are you doing here?" I asked stunned.

"You're full of questions aren't you tonight." She replied smiling. "I'm here to tell you something important," she added in a serious tone. "Most of the pokemon of legends have fallen under Elliot's command. Not all of them are, though, you must head to Lentimas Town, and get the Lunar Wing from the abandoned house."

"Why a Lunar Wing?"

"You'll head to the Marvelous Bridge, after obtaining the wing, and use it to summon Cressilia. Good luck old friend, for this will be the last time I will be able to see you." I was jolted awake immediately after she finished that sentence. It was morning again. I went and found Gretchen and Melissa, who were eating in the lobby.

"We're headed to Lentimas Town," I said as I sat at the table

"Why there?" Gretchen asked.

"An old friend told me." That was all I was willing to tell them.

We boarded the plane to Lentimas later in the day. The plane runs daily, or so I've been told. We sat back in the same seats as the day before. There were at most 12 seats on the cargo plane. Gretchen took a window seat, Melissa took the middle seat, and I took the lane seat. We talked most of the time. The rest of the time was awkward silence. We reached the Lentimas Town, fairly quickly. I headed towards an abandoned home. "We're headed in there," I said pointing to the beat up home.

"Why there?" Gretchen asked.

"It's for a reason, that if I told you, you wouldn't want to go in there, so I won't," I replied.

"Troy," she pressed.

"Alright, somebody died there. It's the only place to get the item I'm looking for."

"And?" Melissa joined in.

"It's supposedly haunted." I added. Melissa didn't look to keen on the idea. "Relax," I added sending Toby out, "Toby and I will protect you." I headed inside with Toby at my side and Melissa hiding behind me, and Gretchen walked behind her calmly. We headed inside, there was furniture covered with dust, they were placed like somebody lived there, except for the pieces of furniture pushed up against a couple of the doorways and the stairs. We walked halfway to the only open doorway, when the couch hopped. Melissa jumped out of her skin. I grabbed her arm, "just relax, ghost pokemon live here. One is probably messing with you." I said trying to calm her down. We continued through the doorway on the far left, walking down a couple steps into what looked like a library. There were bookshelves lined up, there was one against the far wall, the near wall, and one in-between. There were a couple books on the floor as well as a fallen stool.

I looked on the shelves for something that didn't belong, engulfing myself in the search. I felt a pulling on my arm. "What is it, Melissa?" I asked, not looking away from the shelf. She grabbed my ears and forcibly turned my head to my left. In other end of the hall was the girl from the Marvelous Bridge; she looked the same as she had previously. Without a word she walked up the other stairway. "Follow me," I told them, walking up the other stairway. I pushed the door open; it was previously blocked but is no longer. "Strange," I muttered, "this door was previously blocked. I looked around; some of the furniture was rearranged and we were on other side of the first room we entered. Melissa grabbed my arm tightly. "She's leading us, to it," I added. The furniture unblocked the closest staircase, heading upstairs. I walked up the staircase, and into the door on the second floor. "This is where she died," I whispered.

"How do you know?" Melissa asked not loosening her iron grip.

"A girl died here, she supposedly died from a never-ending nightmare, while her father was looking for a cure. This is her bedroom." I told them. She appeared again in the middle of the room, with a sad face. She just stared at us, and disappeared once again. I turned around and headed once again out the door. The furniture had moved once again, hopping as we passed causing Melissa to use me as a human shield. The staircase we walked up originally was blocked by a large houseplant. We could only head through the same doorway we first entered through. I walked down the stairs and walked into the library. I walked through it again and exited through the same door as we did the first time. This time the door we came in through, the middle door on the first floor and the entrance were the only doors unblocked. The other furniture were pushed up against the walls.

We walked through the room and headed through the one door hadn't yet. We were inside an empty room. The girl appeared in the middle of the room again. Her Abra was at her side, and she held a large feather, that started green and turned purple. "This is the Lunar Wing," she said monotonously, "I have no need for it now, so I'll give it to you." She walked over to me, gave me the wing, and flashed a big smile. "Thank you," she said starting to fade out of sight, "for freeing us." After finishing that sentence she was completely gone. I smiled sadly, in her last moments on this earth; she might have just saved us all. We left through the entrance, looking at the house.

"Thank you," I said before heading to Reversal Mountain.


	16. Chapter 16

We headed through Reversal Mountain quickly, Gretchen and Melissa weren't very happy but they kept up. "Come on," I said as we exited the Volcano, "We need to get to the Marvelous Bridge."

"You're going to tell us why first." Melissa said grumpily.

"Fine, I'm going there to summon Cressilia to help us stop Elliot." I replied nonchalantly. I said picking up the pace. "Come on, I told you, so let's go." They complained a bit, but eventually gave in, and walked faster. We reached Black City, by about 3. "Marvelous Bridge isn't too far now." I told them. I looked back and they looked tired and angry with me. "So, I think we could rest for a little, and head to the Bridge later." I added, appeasing them. We sat down on the bench, and talked for a while. I had to apologize to Melissa's Lilligant, who was deathly afraid of me, since I almost cut off her head. Eventually, she forgave me. We decided to eat dinner then head to the bridge. We ate at some random restaurant; I didn't pay much attention to the name. It was about 7 by the time we left, and night was just beginning to overtake the day.

We eventually reached the Marvelous Bridge. I pulled the Lunar Wing out of my bag, and held it up when we walked onto open part of the bridge. It gave off a faint pink glow. "Is that it?" Gretchen asked. She was answered by a pokemon with crescent shaped wings that flew right by her head. It flew back around and landed in front of us.

"That is Cressilia." I told them.

"Why have you summoned me?" Cressilia asked.

"I have come to ask your assistance in stopping Elliot."

"So then, you are the one the Gardevoir spoke of."

"I think so, but anyways, I need your help."

"I will lend you my assistance, but I'm not enough to help you stop him. He has many powerful allies; you need to find Shaymin, the four swords: Cobalion, Virizon, Terrakion and Keldeo, and Latios and Latias." She showed me an image of a map of the places I would find them, it was just like visualizing an image in your head. "Summon me again when you have found them."

"What about Elliot?"

"Heatran won't be able to do anything for a while, I'm impressed, and he's very strong. Anyways he won't be capable of proceeding for a while."

"Ok, thank you."

"My pleasure, see you again," she replied before flying off.

"Ok," I started, "So then, we'll head up to the Abundant Shrine first, since it's closest. Then, we'll head to Straiton, Gretchen while you're getting Shaymin, Melissa and I will go to the Dreamyard to get Latios and Latias. Then, we'll head up to Victory Road and attack the castle.

"How do you know where they are?" Melissa asked.

"Cressilia told me telepathically. Any other questions?"

"Nope." She replied

"Good, then let's go." I said enthusiastically, walking back towards Black City. We walked into Black City once again there were people everywhere as I expected since it was only 8:30. "Do you girls want to sleep in the Pokemon Center and go after the four swords in the morning, or go after the four swords first and then sleep?" I asked them.

"I would prefer to sleep first, we walked a lot today and I don't think they'll go anywhere." Melissa replied with a yawn.

"I have no problems with that. Let's go book a couple of rooms." I said. We headed to the Center and booked two rooms. They were booked pretty tightly but she managed to find two rooms next to each other.

"Wait a minute," Gretchen started, "I'm not sleeping in the same room as her."

"I thought you two got along well," I replied a little confused, "Anyway they're packed tight. So, she can either stay with you, or me. I'd prefer if she stayed with you, so as to avoid anything indecent." Melissa blushed. I turned to her, "You know that you have a say in this too," I told her.

"Well, I-," she stuttered. "I wouldn't mind staying with you, but if you try anything, I'll make you regret it." She added making the last part sound as threatening as she could.

"Don't worry about that," I started laughing lightly, "Sam would probably kill me before you had the chance." She smiled, I don't know whether that was because she trusted me, or because she thought that I was kidding, I wasn't. "Problem solved," I said turning to Gretchen, "anything else?" She shook her head, although I could tell she still didn't like the idea. We headed down the hallway, which was empty and reached our rooms, room 4 and room 5. I handed Gretchen the key to room 5. "We'll be next door," I reassured her. I slid the card through the specially made scanner, and opened the now unlocked door. I held it open, for Melissa, who thanked me and entered the room, the only light being from the two lamps. The room had one bed, a television, a bathroom and extra pillows and blankets. I took one of the blankets and one of the pillows and lied down on the ground against the wall. "Please don't step on me." I asked her.

"Okay," she replied, smiling a little. "Are you sure that you're okay with sleeping on the floor?"

"Yeah," I replied lying on my stomach under the blankets, "I've done this plenty of times before." She lay her head down on the pillow, covered herself with the blanket, and grabbed the power switch on the lamps.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She clicked the light off. I lied there for a while just thinking about the current situation and such, mainly just repeating memories that I had, some pleasant, most weren't. The train of thought was derailed when I heard her say something, but I couldn't make it out. I closed my eyes soon afterwards, drifting into a dreamless sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

I woke up, unable to breath. I looked and saw Sam, with her legs lying heavily on my back. I frantically patted her shoulder trying to wake up as I ran out of air. I tried desperately to lift her, but to no avail. I grunted repeatedly trying to get her off me. Luckily, Melissa heard me, and managed to wake Sam up. I gasped for air as soon as she was removed, "Thanks Melissa," I managed to say. "Why were you holding me down?" I asked Sam, after regaining my breath.

"To keep you from doing anything stupid." She replied.

"While I thank you for your concern, but I am capable of making good decisions. I just haven't made very many recently."

"Which justifies what I did," she replied.

"Touché," I said, pulling out her pokeball, returning her. "Her heart is in the right place, but I don't think almost killing me is necessary," I added, looking up at Melissa, who was laughing. "What?" I asked confused.

"Nothing," she replied giggling. I stared at her still confused. "I'm going to take a shower, and like I said yesterday, peak and you die."

"Yes ma'am," I said saluting. She laughed even harder. "What?" I asked again.

"It's nothing," she replied heading to the bathroom, "trust me."

"Alright," I added, before she closed the door. "Man, that was weird," I muttered to myself. I sat down and watched the news for a while.

"Troy," Melissa called from the bathroom.

"Yeah," I called back.

"You want to join me?"

"What?" I shouted.

"You heard me. Do you want to join me?" she repeated.

"No, I'd prefer not." I replied.

"Ok," she said walking out of the bathroom. I didn't look at her. "You pass."

"Pass what?"

"A test, I put in place," she replied running over and hugging me, "and you passed. I can trust you."

"Good to know," I said dumbfounded, "but, can I take a shower before you start hugging me." She immediately let go of me. I chanced looking at her hoping she was clothed and to my relief, she was wearing a pink tank top and shorts.

"Yeah, probably a good idea," she said holding her nose. "You stink."

"You're the one who wanted to hug me beforehand." I joked. I grabbed my clothes and right when I was about to close the door, I stopped and turned back to her. "This door locks you know," I started, locking then unlocking it. "Why didn't you lock it? You didn't really expect me to come in, did you?"

"No," she scoffed turning away, "You just didn't hear it."

"You know I would have heard it, it isn't exactly-"

"Just go and take your shower," she interrupted. I closed the door, locking it, and looked in the mirror, somebody drew all over my face. They went to town, they drew an eye patch, put walrus fangs under my mouth, and much more.

"That is why she was laughing," I chuckled. I took the shower, and walked out, wearing the t-shirt and jeans I brought with me to the bathroom. "Did you scribble on my face?" I asked her when I opened the door.

"A little," she replied giggling.

"I could tell."

"How so?"

"Because my pokemon can draw better," I teased.

"And if I remember correctly, one of them almost killed you earlier," she joked.

"Ok, one she didn't do it on purpose, and two she wasn't the first."

"Touché"

"Anyways," I said extending my arms, "I'm huggable now."

"No," she replied, "I don't want a hug." I walked up to her and tried to hug her and she jumped back. "I said I don't want a hug." I continued to follow her.

"You shall not escape," I laughed still following her, "I will get you to hug me."

"Stop," she said, still avoiding me. I ran in for another attempt. "I said stop," and she slapped me in the face.

"Well that was uncalled for," I said sitting on the ground.

"You asked for it."

"I just wanted a hug," I replied quietly, "There was no reason to be so violent."

"Sorry," she apologized sitting next to me, averting her eyes.

"My goodness, that's smarts," I said rubbing my face, "That hurts." She removed my hand from my face and kissed me on the cheek she slapped.

"That is an apology for slapping you," she said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I put my hand on her cheek, "Don't look sad, I know you didn't do that on purpose." I looked at her eyes, well stared more like.

"Stop that, you're beginning to creep me out," she laughed. I felt my cheeks heat up and I looked down.

"Sorry," I said not looking up.

"Don't worry about it," she turning her attention to the clock. "Its 9:00 we should go get Gretchen and head out."

"Okay," I replied still a little embarrassed.


	18. Chapter 18

We headed north of Black City. Once outside the city, we walked through a few trees west of us and walked over a small bridge crossing the river. We entered the Abundant Shrine, Cobalion, Virizon, Terrakion and Keldeo were visible immediately upon entrance, in a small clearing of grass, with and occasional puddle. "It looks like they're training," I muttered. We walked up to the four; they took notice of us as we approached.

"Halt strangers," Cobalion ordered. We stopped walking. "Identify yourselves."

"My name is Troy," I started calmly. "This is Melissa," I said gesturing to Melissa. "And this is Gretchen," I added gesturing to Gretchen. "We have come to ask for you help in stopping Elliot."

"We do not deal with the struggles of people."

"You won't help us stop the Zoroark who intends to have Heatran make Reversal Mountain Erupt." His face darkened.

"Like I said before, we don't deal with the struggles of people we deem unworthy."

"How do I prove that we are worthy?"

"You must fight me to prove yourself."

"Seems simple enough," I replied, holding my scythe at the ready. "Let us begin." He smiled.

"You seem overconfident, that will be your downfall," he said charging me. I sidestepped out of the way. He turned back for another attack. He charged at me, I blocked his charge with the staff of my scythe. He pushed me back, my feet scraping against the ground. I pushed him back with my scythe, or at least I tried to, it ended up pushing myself farther back. I managed to put a few feet of space between us. I swung my scythe at him, catching him in the horns, the blades getting caught in his horns. I stepped to his side and managed to pull it free. I backed away from him again; I needed to figure out a way to stop him. He took the opportunity to charge again. I smashed my scythe's head into the soft dirt and at the last moment used it to jump over Cobalion. He kept going however; he was headed straight for Melissa. I figured out his target before I landed and without thinking, swung my scythe around, grabbing both of his horns in between the blades and pulled back. I managed to stop him just before he got within 5 feet; his head pulled back towards me as the rest of him was still fighting to continue on its chosen path.

"Don't you dare try that," I said furiously, "You're fighting me. Don't try that again, if you know what is good for you." With his horns caught in the blades, I started walking back, pulling him along with me. He got the message and turned back, running at me again. I swung my scythe at his legs causing him to trip. He regained and turned back to me, once again charging. He caught me in the chest with his horns. He threw me up in the air like I weighed nothing. My ascent didn't last long, before gravity pulled me back to the grass. Cobalion waited for me to descend enough so he could launch another attack. He jumped at me when I was within the range of his next attack, horns raised. "Bad move," I warned, stabbing my scythe into the soft grass. Using the scythe I pulled myself towards the ground faster, allowing me to avoid his attack. Not letting go of the weapon, I landed and jumped again, using the bottom of the scythe to launch myself upwards faster. I double kicked him from below directly in his unguarded underbelly. I fixed my fall and landed back on my feet, and waiting for Cobalion to reach the ground, I pulled the scythe out of the dirt. He landed with a Thud, unable to land on his feet from the last attack. "Have I proven myself?" I asked walking over to him.

"Yes," he coughed, "We will help you in you quest."

"Good," I replied calmly now, "we have time before we are ready, we still have to get a few others. So, until then just rest." I headed back to Melissa and Gretchen. "Are you okay?" I asked. I received nods from both of them. "We have to go and get the others, I don't know how long it will take so we better get moving," I told everyone. "Come on, you two," I said grabbing Melissa and Gretchen, "We should get moving."

"Bye," we all told the legendaries before we left.

"Hey Troy," Melissa said.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Where is Elliot?"

"I have no idea. I assume Victory Road, since that is where that castle from the Team Plasma debacle resides." I guessed, "It's the only lead we have right now."

We walked into the east entrance of the Marvelous Bridge. As we walked onto the open portion of the bridge, I realized the lack of wild pokemon that we here before. There were no Sawk, Throh, not even any Ducklett or Swanna. "Last time I came through here I saw that girl from the abandoned house in Lentimas, and there were a ton of wild pokemon here." I said, trying to wrap my mind around the massive change. I walked faster much to the dismay of the others, but they kept up nonetheless. We eventually made it across the bridge, it wasn't soon enough, I did not like what the feeling the bridge was giving me at the time. We reached Nimbasa soon after, passing the cyclists who rode up and down the route.

I checked the time on my Xtransceiver; it wasn't all too much later after we had left Black City, about 2 in the afternoon. "Let's keep going," I told them as we made our way to the southern entrance. The amusement park on the East side of town was lively, from what I could see and hear; the sounds of many people could easily be heard over the screeches of an Exploud. I covered my ears, hurrying out of the city. I dislike loud sounds, especially when they're loud enough to make your ears bleed, like the amusement park. I uncovered my ears once we were back on Route 4. I grabbed Roy and Anthony's pokeballs out of my pockets, sending them out. "Remember this place?" I asked them. They nodded in reply.

"Why would they remember?" Melissa asked me as we walked.

"This is where I caught them," I replied smiling at the memories. "Well, where I caught Anthony; Roy was caught west of here in the underground caverns of the Desert Resort."

"I thought Trapinch weren't indigenous here."

"They aren't, Anthony got separated from his family, who they migrate here during the Hoenn's winters and return during Unova's autumn." The scenery changed into the buildings that the gang ambushed from. "Be on guard," I warned walking more carefully, hand the scythe that rested on my back. "This isn't a nice neighborhood." Gretchen understood immediately, but Melissa didn't quite. "A gang resides here," I whispered, answering the question she hadn't verbally asked. "That guy who we fought in Undella was their leader." She looked angry at me, and I don't mean angry but more of a '_if we get out of here alive I'm going to strangle you' _kind of angry, it was a much scarier response then I hoped for. She didn't say a word however; she visibly understood that being stealthy right now would be best. It was in vain however, they had already heard us, and we came upon this conclusion, when we walked right into a massive roadblock.

"Oh," I said, trying to be friendly so as to avoid a conflict. "Um… hi."

"You put our boss behind bars," the man in front of the blockade replied. He was completely bald, and wore jeans, a dark leather jacket with an image of the Desert Resort on it, and Sunglasses with triangular shaped lenses. "We're here to make you pay."

"Is that some sort of threat?" I questioned, laughing at the thought. "If I remember correctly I swept your boss in a battle easily, and I remember him saying something about there being few strong trainers." He didn't respond and instead reached for his back pocket. I removed my scythe from my back and swung at him, bringing it to a stop, his neck between the blades. There was about 7 inches of space between the blades; his neck took up around 3 inches of the space.

"Just grabbing my pokeballs," he replied smugly, trying to get me to release him.

"Really," I asked, "because those are in your front pocket." He looked down at his pockets, the miniature sphere's leaving bumps in the jeans. "You keep a gun in your back pocket," I guessed, "Your boss did the same thing." He removed his hand from his pocket and lifted both his hands into the air.

"Alright you win," he replied turning around. I reached into his pocket and quickly grabbed the gun jabbing it into his back.

I turned my attention to the rest of the members, "Follow and he gets it," I told them sternly, "let us through." They separated forming a passageway through the human barricade. Roy and Anthony forced some of the group back, shuttering their wings agitatedly. They got the point across, we meant business. We walked through the opening between the split group, receiving angry looks from the thugs. We continued walking after we passed the group, Roy and Anthony making sure nobody followed. The scenery changed from the broken-down buildings the gang had taken over to the now abandoned, finished or almost finished buildings. We passed the opening in buildings on our right, which led to the Desert Resort. I removed the blades from their position, close to the hooligan's neck and brought it back, blade side down, connecting it to the strap I used to carry it on my back.

"Walk," I ordered, pointing towards the Desert Resort with my right hand, still holding the gun in my left. He didn't question he just started walking. I switched the gun to might right hands and kept it pointed at him as he walked away. He didn't look back once; I kept the gun focused on him until he was out of sight. "Anthony dig," I ordered. He quickly dug a hole using his front appendages. "Thank you," I added, putting the gun in the hole and burying it again. There were only a couple of buildings before the road ended and the entrance to Castelia resided. We continued walking, Roy keeping an eye out for the bald man and Anthony keeping pace next to us. After a minute of continued walking, we passed the entrance and we in Castelia. The buildings in the city were darker and much larger than the other buildings. I checked the time again about 4oclock pm. "Hey, you guys want to stay here for tonight?" I asked Melissa and Gretchen as I returned Roy and Anthony. They nodded, and we headed to the Pokemon Center in the southern part of town.

We were sitting in the lobby of the center, talking. Melissa sat next to me in the couch and Gretchen sat in the seat facing 90 degrees to my left. The lobby consisted of the counter where the nurses heal pokemon, the couch we were sitting on could easily see the counter, on the ground just in front of the couch was a red rug, on top of which rested a small rectangular table with the long side parallel to the couch. The entrance was no more than a 10 feet to my left and 10 feet farther away was an almost identical setup. That side however was not exactly the same. It was smaller, the side we were on had another larger rectangular table perpendicular to the one in front of me that matched the length of the larger 2 couches on the longer sides of the tables and a flat screen TV in both corners.

The conversation took a turn to the events that happened earlier on Route 4. Melissa proceeded to smack me in the back of the head. "Ouch," I replied to the violent outbreak, "I guess you remembered how angry you were." She answered me with a nod but no verbal response. "Am I getting the silent treatment?" I pressed. She didn't respond. I turned to Gretchen who was nodding her head. "Good job," I thought angrily to myself, "Now she's giving you the silent treatment." Another thought popped into my mind. "She won't stop being angry unless you do something. Should I try apologizing now? No," one part of my head replied, the other part however thought that I should. This argument continued within my head. It lasted what couldn't be more than a couple minutes, but felt like an hour. I did decide to try to apologize.

I grabbed her wrist, "Follow me," I told, well more like asked her to. She was reluctant but relented soon enough. I dragged her to a nearby alleyway that was completely empty. She opened her mouth to say something but I interrupted her. "You don't have to speak just listen." I said. "I'm sorry that I did that," before I continued, it hit me; I smacked myself in the face with force. "Ugh," I interrupted myself, "I let him live. I said I wouldn't do that." I continued the apology, "I'm sorry," I started. "It was either that way or get lost in the woods and possibly run out of time, or Route 4. I was hoping that the DRG disbanded after losing their leader, or forgot about me."

She slapped me in the face. I looked back at her, she was still angry maybe angrier. "I'm not mad that you went through Route 4," she started. "I'm mad that you didn't tell me about it." I looked at her; she looked back at me with a softer but still upset expression. "You don't have to protect me," she said pushing me back with her left arm. "I'm capable of taking care of myself, I'm not defenseless little Meowth."

"I know," I replied. She continued to stare at me angrily. "No matter how strong you are I'm still going to want to protect you." She went to speak again but I stopped her. "I will not let somebody else die because of me," I added, referring to the incident with Elliot back at my house.

"So you intend to let yourself die and place that same burden on me?" she replied. "Do you know how selfish that is?"

"I don't intend to die. If your going to fight me about me protecting you, then consider this; I lost my parents, my home and my Gardevoir. I don't want to lose anymore." I said. "I'm going back to the center." I walked a few steps away and looked back," You decide what you want to do now, it isn't my decision to make for you." I added, before walking away. I continued walking until I reached the center, and headed directly to the room I booked.


	19. Chapter 19

I was asleep in my room when someone knocked on the door. I reluctantly got up to answer it. I tip towed my way around the pokemon who were sleeping all over the floor. I made my way through the dark room, stepping on Toby's tail when I was feet from the door. He looked up at me questionably. I put my finger up against my lips, to tell him to be quiet. He laid his head back on his front legs, which were crossed in front of him, but watched the door. His gaze didn't waver when I opened the door. "Hello?" I asked, opening the door quietly. The hallway was not much brighter than my room, but bright enough for me to make out a figure that stood on the other side of the doorway. It had its hands behind its back and from the look of it, seemed to be female.

"Hi," they replied, the voice was definitely that of a girl.

"Who is that?" I asked, "I can barely see you."

"I thought you would recognize me," she scolded. "Guess," she added more cheerfully. I ran through the possible names and mentally crossed them out one by one, which didn't even take half a minute.

"Melissa," I guessed.

"Yep," she said walking through the door. "I made my decision." I backed up and let her through, looking over to Toby who was already asleep.

"Watch your step," I warned, "Toby is right there, and he doesn't appreciate being stepped on." I turned on one of the two lamps. We sat down on the bed. "What did you decide?" I asked quietly, the light of the lamp partially illuminating the room, luckily none of the other pokemon woke up.

"I'll continue to travel with you," she started. In my head I was cheering very loudly. I started to speak, but she interrupted me. "But, you need to tell me everything, and I mean everything." She added emphasizing the last part.

"Good," I replied putting my hand on her shoulder, "but, how about tomorrow? I was sleeping until you showed up at the door." She looked at me with a smile, and then pushed me off the bed.

"Ok," she laughed as quietly as she could, "but you're sleeping on the floor." I sat on the other bed in the room.

"Or I could use this bed." I laughed, knowing that she hadn't seen it. I pulled down the cover to reveal that Ty had been sleeping on said bed and was sprawled out, completely taking up all the space on the bed. "Looks like I'll be sleeping on the ground," I added, grabbing a blanket and a pillow from the many that were on the bed. I searched the ground for an open area, finding one up in the corner of the room farthest from the door. "I've slept in worst conditions," I thought, putting down the pillow. I then lay down on my stomach once again, draping the blanket over myself.

"Ok, you need to tell me how you sleep like that," she told me before turning out the light.

"Alright, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow." I replied, drowsing off. I began to think again, _Sam might just kill me this time._ This thought worried me, though it didn't stop me from falling asleep. I woke up, this time not being crushed by an electrified zebra. I looked over to see that Sam was still asleep on her side. "Thank goodness," I sighed in relief. I looked over at the clock; it showed that it was 8:16 in the morning. I then turned my attention to the bed that held the partially awake Melissa, "Come on," I told her softly, "You have to wake up." She looked at me sweetly.

"Can I please sleep a little longer," she pleaded giving puppy eyes.

"Fine," I replied walking towards the bathroom, "but when I'm done changing you have to wake up." She was back asleep almost immediately. I closed and locked the door. After changing into a plaid short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, I opened the bathroom door to leave, and was greeted by a hoof that I barely dodged. "I guess Sam's awake," I thought to myself, as I ducked under the strike. She turned to face me with an angry look on her face. "Don't worry," I said trying to keep her from murdering me, "I didn't do anything stupid."

"Then why is she here?" Sam retorted.

"Because she's helping us get the aid of the legendary pokemon," I replied, pointing what was obvious to her.

"You know what I mean."

"Why she is in here, I'm not sure. She just showed up, late at night, and I wasn't going to argue with her while I was half asleep." I walked over to sleeping Melissa, who was sprawled out under the covers, not to different then the way Ty still was. "Hey Melissa," I whispered tapping on her shoulder, "It is time to wake up."

"No," she replied still asleep, "I don't want to buy makeup." I laughed but quickly silenced myself. I looked over to Sam who was doing the same.

"Wake up," I repeated a little louder, "time is relevant."

"No," she replied, this time awake enough to understand. "I don't want to wake up yet." I turned on the light beside the bed.

"Really," I started, "Did you know that you talked in your sleep." She shot up out of the bed, and looked at me, her cheeks turning red.

"What did I say?" she asked flustered.

"Nothing of real importance." I replied smiling a little. "But you're awake now, aren't you, so you won't be talking in your sleep again today."

"That was mean," She replied pouting.

"I wasn't kidding you did talk, you just rambled nonsense. You're awake so go change then we'll get Gretchen and head out."

"Alright," she groaned as she headed to the bathroom, locking the door after she closed it. I turned back to Sam, who just stared back.

"She's weird," I joked.

"I heard that," she called from the bathroom. Sam and I turned to each other and laughed. She walked out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wearing a pink short-sleeved shirt and a blue skirt that reached her knees. I returned my team to their respective pokeballs and grabbed my bag and my scythe.

"We aren't leaving yet," Melissa said, stopping me from leaving.

"Oh yeah," I replied, remembering what I told her yesterday, "Then, I'll tell you right quickly." I then spent a few minutes giving her the run down of what happened since the Elliot incident as I'm now going to call it.

I finished giving her the rundown on what had happened since the Elliot incident. We sat in an awkward silence that lasted for a couple of minutes. I finally spoke, "Don't sweat it." She looked at me. "I made those decisions, most of them I can't regret." She continued to stare it was making me uncomfortable. "We better not keep Gretchen waiting." I added, which ended her gaze. I walked out into the hallway and turning looking right I could see Gretchen exiting her room.

"So did it work out?" Gretchen asked as she passed. I nodded in response. We continued walking down the plain hallway. We put the room keys on the counter that Nurse Joy was normally behind, but for some reason wasn't at the moment. We walked out onto the street, and were immediately immersed in a large crowd. I grabbed Gretchen and Melissa and forced my way out of the crowd, pulling them along.

"You two okay," I asked.

"I think so," Melissa responded dusting off her skirt.

"Good, because it looks like we might have to fight our way through the crowd." I grabbed Melissa hand and Gretchen's wrist without warning and pulled them against the flow of the crowd towards the entrance to the Skyarrow Bridge. We received some complaints and a couple of unpleasant words and gestures from some of the businessmen but we reached it nonetheless. I let go of them when we were just outside the entrance. I smiled at them, "Sorry, but that was the quickest way."

"I think you just wanted to hold Melissa's hand," Gretchen teased.

"What?" I replied looking away. "Come on, we better get going." I began walking towards the bridge gate. "Well," I asked turning back towards them. They followed, Gretchen on the left, Melissa in the middle, and I was on the right. We walked onto the large bridge, the walkway was white and the beams were light blue. We walked up the ramp and continued walking down the bridge. We saw only 4 people on the bridge; we walked until we reached the bridge's spiral. As we walked down the spiral, a truck barreled by knocking us off our balance. We fell like dominos; I ended up on the top of the heap, having fallen last. My hand found Melissa's chest, I drew it back immediately, face turning red. "Sorry," I apologized, getting off of Melissa. I stood up and held my hand out to Melissa, who grabbed it and was pulled to her feet. By the time I had pulled Melissa to her feet, Gretchen was already up. The incident made the rest of the walk awkward for Melissa and me. We walked out of the other bridge gate, which led us to a platform that had a great view of the bridge, the sunset illuminated the sky in a vivid orange.

"Wow that's beautiful," Melissa said. I looked at her, the sun shined brightly on her.

"Yeah," I muttered, "stunning." I turned my attention to the forest that the platform rose out of. "Let's not stay here any longer than we should." I began walking to Pinwheel forest. "We'll admire the view, when time isn't of the essence." She looked back at me a little disappointed, "Don't worry, we'll come back here." I added. She gave a small smiled, and walked over to me, Gretchen following. We walked into the noticeable tree line. We were immediately immersed in the plant-life, the path barely visible, faded after many uses. We continued walking, pushing branches out of the way. Occasionally we would see a wild Swadloon or Whirlipede, we even saw a Whimsicott. Eventually, the vegetation lightened, quite visibly as if most of the plants in the area just vanished. We continued walking down the path, coming to where the road split, we took the path on the right and were force to backtrack and take the other path which took us straight to Nacrene City.


	20. Chapter 20

"We're almost there," I told them, sounding enthusiastic.

"Why is Troy so excited?" Melissa quietly asked Gretchen, they were a few steps behind me.

"I idolized Latias and Latios as a young child. So, this is kind of like a dream come true to me." I replied answering her for Gretchen. I turned my attention back to where we were, we were in Straiton, and I hadn't noticed that we had already reached it. There were some large 2-3 story buildings but there were only a few buildings. I turned back to the duo, who were still talking. I guess they weren't paying much attention either because they looked a little surprised at the update in scenery. "We're here," I started, "we better get going." Melissa walked over to my side, "I'm counting on you," I told Gretchen. "We'll meet back up here in an hour maybe, if not we'll look for each other." I received nods from both of them. "Ok, then let's go." Gretchen started in her search for Shaymin and Melissa and I began making our way to the Dreamyard. "Did you have any legendary you admired growing up?" I asked Melissa as we continued walking.

"Yeah, I used to idolize Manaphy." She replied.

"Oh, cute," I replied with a smile.

"Yeah, that's why I liked it so much."

"What about Phione."

"Who?"

"Legendary pokemon," I replied, "a lot like Manaphy except with no yellow."

"That one, I thought that was just like a shiny version."

"Nope, separate classification." I pointed out, I brought my attention back to my surroundings. "Looks like we've reached the Dreamyard." I looked around for the legendary pair, "I know that they usually are found in Hoenn but they should be here." A bush ahead of us rustled. I smacked myself in the face, "Duh, they can turn invisible. They're usually pretty shy, how could I forget." I pulled out one of my pokeballs, "Toby," I called as the black and white mountain lion with the red eyes, the black scythe blade erupting from the right side of his head, and his sharp, bladelike tail, which could easily cut you if careless. "We're looking for the Latis (Means both Latios and Latias). Chances are they're invisible, so we're counting on your sense of smell." He started smelling the air, he caught it immediately. I would assume that they would smell different than most normal pokemon. He eventually led us up part of one of the partial building and called for us. I followed him up the building without a problem, I gladly helped Melissa up the building. "See," I pointed out, "chivalry isn't dead."

I'm not entirely sure what happened next but I slipped and we both began to fall off the side of the building. I grabbed the side of the building at the last second, stopping our fall, I still had a hold on Melissa who was closer to the ground. I swung her back and forth, building momentum until I was able to swing her up beside me, allowing her to grab onto the same ledge I was holding onto. I quickly pulled myself up, a fairly easy task. I turned back around and with both hands, grabbed Melissa's right hand and pulled. She slowly rose up the building, helping whenever she could. I managed to pull her back to safety, even though my arms protested. "You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, are you?" I looked down at my hands, they were scraped and bleeding a little.

"Yeah, I'll live." She looked at my hands and cringed. Well I don't think that she's a big fan of blood. In my peripheral vision there was this large blot of red. I followed this mass with my eyes, and it became clear when it was the focus of my attention. "Latias" I jumped in joy. She quickly disappeared, I realized my mistake and called out to her. She appeared again but farther away. "Sorry for scaring you." I apologized. Another blue mass to form next to her, Latios. "We need your help." I told them, as they cautiously approached. They didn't respond, rather they were interrupted before they could. A ball of dark energy was shot, exploding, right where the duo was, they had seen the attack and avoided it. I focused my attention onto the source of the attack. They was this strange woman with red hair, wearing a cloak, with a Liepard at her side.

"Sorry," she said, her voice emotionless, "but you won't be getting their help." Toby snarled, it was a ferocious sound, he normally was suspicious of most people, but he's never snarled like that before. Whoever that lady was, she was big trouble.

"Who are you?" I asked, left hand reaching for my pokeballs and my right on my scythe.

"I'm a Pokemon Hunter," she replied, "That is all you need to know. Now get out of my way or you'll regret it." I gestured to Toby, who fired a Razor Wind at the Liepard, the concentrated energy slamming into the large feline, sending it reeling back.

"That is my answer." I pulled out 2 pokeballs, throwing them into the air, Alexis was released from the first one. She landed on the ground gracefully, focusing her naturally paralyzing glare onto the pokemon hunter, who returned it without blinking. Anthony flew out of the other one and stuck himself to the side of the building.

"So be it," she threw a couple of pokeballs, a Druddigon and a Golurk being released onto the ground. Anthony shot a Dragon Breath at Druddigon, the stream of blue flames was broken by a single swing of its arm. Alexis went to fighting Golurk without a second thought. She coiled around the golem, strangling away its consciousness. It managed to break free, but was unable to react when she smashed her tail into its head, in what was a vicious Leaf Blade. Toby took on the hunter's Liepard, they clashed. He was using Night Slash, his head blade absorbing the light around it. He slashed and parried with Liepard who was matching him with Shadow Claw. I jumped of the building bringing my scythe down towards the hunter. She jumped out of the way at the last moment, her search for the legendaries being interrupted. "Stop interfering," she growled at me.

"I could you the same," I said swinging the scythe at her. "You don't know what you're doing."

"I don't care, I'm just doing my job." I faked a swing at her, and grabbed her right arm, which had some sort of gauntlet attached. I rotated my body on my left foot, smashing my right foot into her face, her arm slipping out of the gauntlet. I dropped it on the ground, and smashed it with my left foot. She looked at me, angry at the loss of the tool. I glared at her, matching the one Alexis had given her earlier.

"You make me sick." I looked over to Alexis who had already defeated Golurk, Toby had already knocked Liepard unconscious, and Anthony had managed to beat back Druddigon and with Toby's help beat him as well. My team came back to my side. "Toby, get some police down here." I ordered, "Alexis bind her until Toby returns." Toby ran back towards town, and Alexis wrapped herself around the hunter, rendering her immobile. I then turned my attention to Anthony, who had taken quite a beating. I sprayed a hyper potion on his wounds, using up the contents of the small bottle. I left him out, just for the sake of it. "It's okay Latias, Latios." I called, "You can come out now." Luckily they hadn't run off yet, the air distorted a few feet ahead of me, revealing the two. "Back to what I was saying before, I need your help." I told them what Cressilia had told me, making sure that the bond hunter couldn't hear. They looked at each other then back to me.

"Gladly," Latios replied. I smiled. I looked back to Melissa.

"We'll go get Gretchen, then we'll head out." I turned my attention to Anthony, who was cloaked in another light. As the light faded, it was revealing his new form. He had grown larger, with a longer tail, he was still a dusty green, his wings had grown and received a red outline, his back legs grew in size, his front legs becoming arms and he grew red shaded eye protectors, he had evolved in a Flygon. Anthony was astatic at the change, and so was I. He tested out the new form, flying quickly through the air perform flips and other acrobatics. He landed next to me, accidentally smacking his tail into a tree. I laughed, "Looks like you have to get used to that new form of yours." The police arrived and Alexis was finally able to let go of the hunter, who immediately escaped with a smoke bomb. I recalled Alexis and Anthony, I know that Anthony would probably cause quite a bit of damage to the buildings if kept out, at least at this moment in time. I went back to the rendezvous point, just in time, but there was no Gretchen.

We waited for Gretchen, for about 15 minutes. "We should go look for her," I suggested.

"Yeah," she replied as we walked in the direction that Gretchen had left to earlier. We passed by a couple of the small buildings, eventually coming to a small field of red flowers. "These are Gracadia Flowers," Melissa pointed out smiling. I picked one from the many clumped together in the small field.

"For you," I said, handing her the flower, bowing my head. She graciously took the flower from my hand with a large smile.

"Thank you," she replied, putting it in her hair. "How's it look?"

"Amazing," I replied without thought. Her face was turning red, mine was too. We started gravitating toward each other. Our faces were inches apart, something flew quickly between us. I soon realized that the thing was a small green, dog-like creature. "What is that?" I asked, mystified.

"It's Shaymin," I turned to see that it was Gretchen who answered my question. She had her Gothitelle at her side both of them were pretty beat up. "Careful, he's really powerful," she warned, "and even worst he's sided with Elliot." I was shocked, one of the pokemon who was supposed to help us, had turned against us. "He defeated Quilava." I know that Ty will be outraged. I sent out Ty and Roy, the best matchup. The Typhlosion, launched powerful flams from his neck, as the Volcarona flew after Shaymin, spreading the powdery, red, glowing scales with each flap of his wings. Shaymin reacted by firing a ball of energy at Roy, who dodged it easily. Ty already knew what happened to Quilava, I could tell when he roared at Shaymin and launched a flamethrower at where he predicted Shaymin to be.

"Roy, Fiery Dance," I ordered, as he flew around the Shaymin at great speed, launching streams of fire from every direction. Shaymin easily broke free from the attacks, and fired an Energy Ball at Ty, who blocked it with Fire Pledge, the geyser of fire, stopping the energy ball. Roy then did something even I hadn't expected, he grabbed Shaymin with his little claw-like appendages, when his attention was on Ty. Ty had taken the chance to jump close enough to them to let out a fury of explosions, franticly snapping his claws. Roy emerged completely unharmed. Unfortunately, so had Shaymin, who flew in close to Melissa, who was next to me. Shaymin became cloaked in a bright blue light, it hit me, "He's going to explode," I shouted pushing Melissa to the ground and jumping on top of her. Shaymin released the energy in a massive explosion that sent shockwaves through the ground, and definitely waking the town. Pain seared along my back having been within feet of the explosion, it felt like a sunburn that was peeling away my skin. I quickly jumped off Melissa, as the pain on my back was registered in my brain. I felt around my back, the explosion peeled off fabric off my shirt that was supposed to have covered my back, I didn't dare touch my skin, afraid of what the damage done had been. I grit my teeth and endured the pain, I looked on the ground frantically searching for my scythe, spotting a patch of flowers that had something on top. Running over to the spot, I reached for the weapon, my attempt was stopped by the pain that raced through my back again, this time with a vengeance.

I turned back to the battle that was going on behind me, I wouldn't be able to help this time. I ran over to Melissa who was still too shocked to get up, arms at my side trying to keep from moving them, lest I angry the wound. "Don't just sit there," I told her, standing next to her. "You may be targeted, do something." She didn't move. I turned my back to her, she looked over and quickly turned away again, "Don't let him hurt you, or else what I did would have been for nothing." She turned back to me, she had tears running down her face. "Don't feel sorry that that had happened, I wouldn't have been able to escape the blast, so the least I could do is block it from hitting you."

"B-But you got hurt protecting me," she sniffled.

"And I would gladly do it again, if I had to." I said smiling, "It would have hurt worst if you were hurt." She looked at me, more surprised at what I had said, rather than sad. I could hear the sounds of more people being awoken, and a number of them had come over to check out the noise.

"This party is getting too cramped for me," Shaymin said sounding disappointed. He turned and flew off without another word, avoiding a Heat Wave from Roy without an additional thought. People started to crowd around us, a few questioning what was going on, some complained about being awoken, and others were telling me to go to the Center, and get my back checked out, someone kept explaining to me, in great detail, how it looked, against my will. I conceded on the condition that people would stop telling me, what bad shape I was in and what not.


	21. Chapter 21

"This is serious," Nurse Joy told me, as she examined my back. Melissa was there still sulking. I craned my neck, luckily I was able to do that without causing myself severe pain. I was sitting backwards in a chair, leaning forward, shirtless.

"How serious?" I asked, the nurse only visible in my peripheral vision. She held a cold round object against my back, it soothed it, only for a short while but it helped.

"Well," she began to explain, "It looks like 3rd degree burns that could have easily been fatal, especially considering how close to the explosion you were." This didn't help Melissa any. "But," the nurse continued, "had you remained standing you wouldn't have been able to breathe on your own, put simply, you are very lucky. So are you," she added pointing to Melissa, who just looked at the floor in response. "You're going to have to stay here for a while, until you heal."

"What about Gretchen?"

"She's in bed right now recovering from minor injuries and exhaustion, so are her pokemon, her Quilava is in critical condition, but he's recovering slowly." The nurse started walked to the doorway, "I'll be right back." I gestured for Melissa to come over to me. At first she refused, but I gestured more aggressively, grunting when I irritated my back. She conceded and walked over to me.

"Hey," I began asking, "I left my scythe in the field, please go get it, and tell the Latis our conditions. She nodded and walked off at a brisk pace, leaving me to watch as, she left, the Gracadia Flower still in her hair.

"I'm not letting her bring a weapon in here," Nurse Joy scolded.

"I was attacked by a flying hedgehog that is capable of creating explosions with simple thought. I'm going to have that weapon at my side." I sighed, "I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Well," the nurse answered, walking back into the room, "You're going to go to this room," she started handing me a piece of paper with a room number on it and a key card, "and stay there until I say that it's okay for you to leave."

"Alright," I replied not bothering to argue, there was no way I would win anyway. "Can you tell Melissa where to go, when she comes back?" I grabbed my bag and began walking towards the door.

"Really," she added taken aback, "Usually, when I tell somebody that they complain, or try to get out of it in some way."

"Yeah, this isn't the first time I've been to the hospital, besides if I tried to go Melissa would kill me."

"Well it's good to see that somebody's looking out for you. I'll be sure to tell her."

"Thank you," I replied walking towards down the hallway. I eventually came upon the room matching the number, "room number 7, yep this is it." I slid the card through the electronic reader, unlocking the door. I walked into the room, it was a standard hospital room, painted white, with many different medical devices. I lied down, back up, on the bed nearest to me, there was another one, but nobody was there. I laid there for a few minutes, waiting for Melissa to come walking in through the door. I must have dozed off. She walked through the door, waking me from my slumber. "Hi," I told her, half asleep.

"Go back to sleep," she replied obviously unhappy. "We can talk when you're completely conscious." I sat up, that sentence slapping the sleep away.

"Ok then, now's a good time," I replied completely conscious.

"Fine, I feel bad that you were hurt protecting me." She replied, averting her eyes.

"I told you, I couldn't escape the blast, protecting you was the only choice I wanted to make, besides had I not done that you would have been wounded and I'd probably be dead." I continued trying to comfort her, "I made my decision, don't feel as though it was you fault, you didn't create the explosion, nor did you in anyway cause my wound, so please if not for your sake then for mine, stop blaming yourself." She walked over to my side, I lowered my head. "If anything it's my fault, I trained Elliot into being the powerhouse he is, I'm pretty sure he's the one behind all of this anyway." I looked up at her sadly, "Man, I bumming myself out now," I chuckled. I leaned over as close as I could get, "I'm sorry." She stared straight into my eyes, then she did what I hadn't expected. She leaned in and we kissed.

I jumped out of my bed, causing my back to remind me of yesterday's events. "Ouch," I muttered, "Why did I forget about that?" I got dressed the best I could and walked out into the hallway and towards the door. The nurse from yesterday stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going?" she said stopping me.

"I'm going outside to train my pokemon." I replied.

"I told you that I wouldn't let you leave until I give you the okay."

"Which is why I'll be training behind the center, besides I'm going to avoid any strenuous activity." I continued walking, not giving her a chance to respond. I let out all of my pokemon once I reached the area behind the center. "Alright, we've got some training to get done," I told them. "Anthony, get used to your new form, when you're ready we'll take a look at the moves you learned. The rest of you, it's up to you, in the end we all need to be stronger." I sat down, "I'm going to start thinking of new moves and strategies for my fighting as well, at least until Anthony is ready." I began racking my brain, running through whatever ideas I could, some of them sounded like a good idea others didn't.

"Hey," Melissa said, I hadn't noticed that she had been there.

"Hey," I replied.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, my team is training, except for Anthony whose getting used to being a Flygon. I'm thinking of moves and strategies that will be useful in future fights. It'll give me something productive to do while I wait for Anthony. Why don't you train?"

"Actually, I'm going to train my team too."

"Good, I've been waiting to see what pokemon you have." She just smiled in response, and sent out her team. There was here Lilligant, what appeared to be a floating shell of a bug pokemon, a pokemon that I believe the shell to have once belonged to, and a Magmar, the only reason I could tell the species it was because I remember battling one before. "What kind of pokemon are those 2?" I asked her, pointing to the winged cicada-like creature and its floating shell.

"Well," she replied, putting her hand on the winged one, "This is a Ninjask and the other one is a Shedinja."

"Cool, tell me about them." I asked, inspecting the two.

"They're both bug types, Ninjask's ability is Speed Boost, and Shedinja's is Wonder Guard." I looked over at her Magmar who looked offended that I hadn't asked about it. I could only smile at it, it was the only thing I could think of.

"Okay, so then, can I ask that Ty train with your Magmar? It isn't often he gets to train with a fire type that is also physically strong."

"What about Roy?"

"Volcarona aren't made physically strong, they're far better ranged fighters." Magmar had already began fighting Ty, I have to say, Magmar held its own. I turned my attention back to Melissa who had already began training her team. "Back to the-" I was interrupted by a Flygon tail smacking me in the face. I almost fell on my back, just barely able to stop myself from falling.

"I'm ready to train," he joked.

"Fine then," I replied smiling, "why don't we begin teaching you how to use Dragon Pulse.

"Let's try it again," I ordered, "Dragon Pulse." Anthony let loose a teal concentrated ball of energy, which exploded on contact with the tree that had a large bull's-eye painted on it. The blast knocked the tree over. "Okay, good job." I commented, "How about we try Dig?" He dug a large hole, disappearing into it immediately, rocketing out of the ground and showering the surround area with dirt. He looked over to me, I gave him a thumbs up. "Giga Impact," I ordered, he became cloaked in a purple light and flew quickly towards another tree, the energy dispersing before he made contact. He slammed his head against the tree, not leaving a mark in it. Dazed, he flew gently to the ground. "Are you okay?" I asked running over to him.

"Yeah," he replied and flew back up into the air. Other than that incident we continued training, Anthony made progress towards mastering Dragon Pulse but not so much when it came to Giga Impact.

"Good job today," I complimented, as they gathered around me. "Keep it up and we'll be able to defeat Elliot in no time." Some other trainers had gathered during our training session and joined us. One trainer had his Hydragon help Anthony with Dragon Pulse. "With the help of the center, we have set up a feast. Eat your fill." With that, the gathering disbanded and people set upon their activities, some trainers ate some of the food, some chatted idly and others continued their training. I sat on the log, deep in thought.

"Penny for your thoughts," Melissa said, sitting down next to me.

"I'm worried Melissa. Not matter how much training we do, this fight is still going to be a difficult and dangerous fight." She put her hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, it isn't going to help us on the battlefield. So, why is it you aren't talking with the other trainers?" she asked, changing the subject.

"I'm not really much of a people person," I smiled slightly. "I'm socially awkward when it comes to groups this large."

"I like that about you."

"I think I'm going to go to bed," I yawned.

"Okay," she replied, disappointed. I gathered up my team, and headed back to the center.


	22. Chapter 22

"Okay, you look good to go," Nurse Joy told me, as she examined the burn. It had been a few days since we started training. "I recommend that you still be careful though. It hasn't fully healed."

"Thanks," I replied, walking back to the door, "and I will." I met up with Melissa and Gretchen who was released a day earlier. "We're good to go." We headed behind the center again. "We're going to head through the woods, we can't go back through Route 4." Melissa nodded her head. Latios and Latias were levitating just over our heads. Then I remembered, "Gretchen can't Gothitelle teleport us to Cobalion and his group."

"No, remember it only works if she's been outside of her pokeball there," she pointed out.

"Oh, yeah," I replied remembering the conditions required to teleport. "I'd suggest flying but I don't want to yet, seeing how Anthony recently evolved."

"So it looks like we're walking," Gretchen said. I nodded in response.

"Let's get going then," I said, walking forward. They nonchalantly followed me into the thick forest. I could only see a few feet ahead of me, the forest extremely thick with plant life, branches grew out of the trees above our heads and the Lati-s flew above the trees. We walked for a few hours, and eventually came upon a clearing. "We're going to rest here for now." I signaled to Latios and Latias who were flying overhead, landed on the ground. "We're going to camp out here for tonight," I told them, letting out my team, as did Melissa and Gretchen. There was a total of 23 pokemon out, but the clearing was easily large enough for all of us. I started setting up tents, while Gretchen and Melissa quietly chatting. They were almost whispering, probably talking about something they didn't want me to hear. I finished setting up the tents and went about putting sleeping bags in each one. I grabbed some branches from a nearby tree and then dug a small hole in the middle. I put a few of the branches in the hole and had Ty light the branches on fire. "The fire is done." I called.

"Okay," Gretchen yelled back, still chatting with Melissa.

"Hmm, they must be having one heck of a conversation." I thought, returning to the tasks at hand. I began cooking some of the chicken I had bought at the mart in Straiton. "Hey," I called out in my mind. "Caligo."

"Yes," the familiar demonic voice responded.

"Let's make a deal." So I made deal with the demon in my head, sounds crazy but it worked nevertheless. "Ok, so we're all good," I asked for good measure.

"Yep," Caligo replied, even though it was only a voice I could tell it was smiling evilly.

"Good," I muttered.

"What was that," Melissa asked, standing right behind me.

"Oh, it was nothing." I replied calmly. She gave me a concerned look. "Really, it's nothing," I added trying to put her at ease.

"So, is the food ready?"

"Yeah," I replied handing her some of the cooked chicken. "I'm not the best cook."

"No you are not," she replied after eating a bit of the chicken, "but it's still pretty good."

"Thank you," I smiled. I passed out the food to the others and we ate together, except for Latias and Latios who ate away from the group. I have to say, the chicken wasn't half bad. I silently ate my food then headed to my tent. I climbed into my sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

"I'll be waiting for you," Elliot's voice reverberated throughout my mind.

"Then I better not keep you waiting for too much longer." I replied silently.

"It's time to get up," Melissa practically shouted at me.

"Hrrnf," was my only response, as I sat up.

"Latias and Latios are gone."

"What?" I replied running out of my tent. I looked around for the two, but they were nowhere to be found. "Latias, Latios?" I called out, receiving no response. "Yep they're gone." I wrote down a note and stuck it to a tree, at least if they come back they'll know where to go. We continued heading North, nothing important really happening along the way. Neither, Latias nor Latios had returned to us. We reached Black City by about noon. "Okay," I said, when we reached the center, let's go get the Four Swords and meet up with Cressilia. We took the same path to the Abundant Shrine, they were gone. "Hello," I called out, "are you there?" No response, we looked around for an hour, but still nothing. "Them too?" I asked. They left. "Let's go meet up with Cressilia." I said, downheartedly. We headed back to the bridge, and I held up the Lunar Wing in the same spot as I did last time, nothing.

"We'll try again tomorrow." Melissa said, trying to comfort me. I gave her a small smile.

"Okay," I said, following them back to the center. It didn't do much to make me feel any better, they'd abandoned us. We had dinner in the center, and headed off to bed. It was around 4 in the morning, nobody was going to be awake at this hour. I quietly snuck out of my room into the barely lit hallway. I walked down the hallway, only able to make out the light coming from the front entrance. The nurse wasn't there so I just left the room key on the counter and walked out the front entrance. Once on the street, I sent out Flygon, who yawned. "Sorry for waking you up so early, but we need to fly to Victory Road. He bent down, and I climbed on, as he took flight. The sun was barely visible on the horizon to our left, slowing making its assent into the sky. There was a flock of Swanna flying overhead. The terrain changed from the green fields into the angry looking mountains, known as Victory Road.

"Take me down there," I told him pointing to a cliff that had the Alakazam from before on it.

"No problem," Anthony replied landing a few yards away from him.

"Thank you." I returned him after climbing off.

"Come with me," he ordered. I looked at him puzzled. "Our leader wants to deal with you personally."

"Good," I replied as I followed him into the same large marble room from before, "because I planned to fight him today." He stopped in the middle of the room and motioned me to walk ahead, which I did without question.

"Welcome," Elliot yelled excitedly to me, "I assume you want to fight me."

"Of course I am."

"Well, why don't we end the chitchat and get to it then."

"Gladly," I replied smiling. He jumped at me reaching me in a single bound, swinging his claws down on me. I caught it with my right hand, and swung my left arm in a brutal uppercut. He looked shocked at my strength, compared to our last fight. "So you're puzzled aren't you? Well then I'll tell you, I made a deal with my own demon, Caligo." He looked at me, confused. "You wouldn't know her, she speaks to me in my mind. While I have the chance" I added. "I'll explain to you the deal. She'll lend me her power, and for this a price must be paid, I must soak the land with you and your disciples' blood. Put simply her price, is your lives." I shot towards him as fast as I could, flying side kicking him in the face. He attempted another swing at me with his claws. "Too slow," I told him, piercing my hand through his chest and out his back. I removed my hand, as he went limp and fell onto the ground, the sound echoing throughout the empty hall. A ball of energy flew at me, I side stepped out of the way and turned to see it was Alakazam. I ran at him full speed and punched him in the face at the same speed I kicked Elliot, this time knocking him out the entrance and over the cliff.

Heatran walked out from the shadow he was lurking in, as well did Shaymin and one other pokemon, who was black with lots of sharp points and wispy white 'hair' I think that covered one eye, the one that wasn't covered was glowing an eerie blue. "Darkrai, he killed Elliot, we should avenge him." They all launched themselves at me. I smiled, it was out of my control. I met Shaymin mid-air and threw him into Heatran, causing them to plummet towards the ground. Darkrai, fired a dark ball at me, which I smashed subconsciously with my scythe. I ran up to him at great speed and grabbed for his arms, just as he tried to escape into his shadow, I pulled him out and ripped his arms off. I grabbed my scythe and swung at him with such force, that when his neck met the blade, he was beheaded. Shaymin, now recovered from the fall, fired and energy ball at me, which I avoided easily. I ran at him, grabbed him and slammed him with all my strength into the ground, finishing his fight. I quickly found the last of them, Heatran, and approached him. He tried to run, but it was no good.

"Don't even think about running," I told him darkly, "It's too late for you." I brought my scythe in an upwards arc, cutting him stomach and finishing him off. I heard footsteps behind me. Turning to face them, I readied my scythe, then realized that it was Melissa, who was staring at me shocked. Then, everything went black, I could tell that I hit the ground, but I felt no pain. My vision soon returned. I looked up to see Melissa still staring in shock. My vision once again failed me, and I lost consciousness.


	23. Chapter 23

I woke up in a hospital room. I looked over to see Gretchen sitting in the chair to my left. "What happened?" I barely managed to ask.

"That's what I want to know," she replied angrily. "I want to know why you decided to leave us in Black City so you could go after Elliot and his posse. Not only that, but I want to know how you managed to kill them all."

"Where is Melissa?" I weakly asked. I saw her head pop in the doorway at the mentioning of her name, then she disappeared on the other side of the wall again.

"She's been doing whatever she can to avoid being in the same room as you. Whatever you did, it must have been terrifying." I sat up, and looked towards the doorway again, nothing. I looked over and saw my team's pokeballs.

"And just when I was making it up to her," I muttered. "Am I really that strong?" I silently asked myself, remembering the fight.

"So, how are you going to fix the problem you caused?"

"To be honest," I sighed, "I have no idea. So then, how did I get here anyway?"

"Melissa came and got me, and I had Gothitelle teleport us here."

"I going crazy, at least a little." I thought. I got out of bed, I was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. "I'm going to go train for a while." I abruptly told her. "I need some time between just me and my team." I walked out of the room, not giving her a chance to respond. I turned and continued walking down the hallway. I passed, Melissa, who was halfway down the hallway, and she just stepped into a random doorway as I passed her. I turned to look back at her, and we locked eyes. It lasted a second, then she looked away. I continued walking, holding my head low. I walked out of the center, and continued walking. I passed 3 tall black skyscrapers, until I reached the southern tree line. To the people who passed by me, I was nothing more than another face, the only strange thing being my weapon. I walked straight into the forest, carrying my bag, my pokeballs and my scythe.

I walked for a couple hours. I found a small clearing that we passed previously, before I had paid no mind, but now it's a pretty idea place for me to stay. I found a small tree and had Toby cut it down. I then sent out the rest of my team. "Today, feel free to do as you feel, just don't stir up any trouble. Tomorrow, we're going to begin training." After the briefing, we sat down and ate lunch. It mainly consisted of berries, and some food that was left over from the last trip. After lunch, I left my team behind, and walked into an even smaller clearing, not too far from what we made into a campsite. I sat down on and empty patch of grass, and crossed my legs. "It's about time that I confronted Caligo," I muttered. A dark figure took form sitting across from me. It was a 3-dimensional silhouette, outlining only the form of a female the same age as me. She emitted a negative pressure, as if the air was suddenly much thinner, and as far as I know, I was the only person who could tell that she was there. "Caligo, we need to speak." I replied making what I think was eye contact with her.

"Do we really?" she retorted, trying to turn my words around on myself.

"Yes we do."

"Are you trying to rid yourself of me?"

"I was hoping I could, you haven't done much good for me."

"Really, after I helped you kill that Zoroark and his gang." She sounded angry, "You ungrateful little-"

"I was hoping to get rid of you, but I can't, can I"

"Of course you can't." She replied trying her best to make me feel stupid. "I'm a reflection of yourself, an alternate personality if I may."

"So you keep reminding me."

"Why are you getting snippy with me? I didn't abandon you."

"Melissa abandoned me because of you."

"You're the one who requested my help. You're being a hypocrite."

"Yeah, but I was kind of hoping you won't scare off my-"

"Your?"

"Girlfriend, there I said it."

"Congrats, but it seems too late now."

"Don't remind me. Anyways if you won't leave, then at least please stop telling me to kill every other person I fight."

"No promises."

"Just stay in check," I replied, Caligo dissipating into nothing. Now that our conversation was over, although not to the degree of effect I had hoped for, I walked back the way I came. I came upon the clearing where I left my team, and was greeted with a stampede of pokemon. "What is going on?"

"We heard you talking to somebody and you were gone a while, we were beginning to worry. Who were you talking to?" Alexis asked, coiling around me protectively.

"I was talking to myself, well sort of."

Toby tilted his head in response. "What do you mean?"

"So that's it isn't it? You have an alternate personality." Sam repeated, making sure that she heard correctly.

"I haven't spoken to a professional about it, but yeah I'd say so." I replied.

"How long have you had it?" Gabriel asked fascinated.

"Well, ever since I could last remember. I thought that it was normal." I answered. "And just so you know, I'm pretty sure that she can hear you."

"I want to know, why do you have another personality?" Ed queried.

"I was alone a lot when I was younger." I replied looking down. "A lot is an understatement, actually. My parents just thought that she was an imaginary friend."

"Does Gretchen know?" Roy questioned.

"I haven't told her, so unless she's figured it out, no." I responded. "Anyways the only person beside of us that knows is Melissa, I think, and right now she refuses to be anywhere near me."

"So you came out here to give her time to calm down." Jess said.

"And use it as a chance to train." Ty added.

"Yeah, not like we can do much else. Elliot's dead, I think." I replied.

"You know that it may not be true." Ty countered.

"I know, that is why we're training, I'm included, now that my back doesn't hurt me anymore. Ty, we'll get to spar again." I responded, Ty smiling at the last sentence. "We'll be camping out here for a while, by now you're probably used to it." I sat down on the tree and began cleaning the blades of my scythe, which hadn't been cleaned while I was unconscious and still had blood on it. I planned to spend quite a bit of time here.


	24. Chapter 24

It's been a month since I left Black City. The past month I've spent training in the woods south of Black City, getting stronger. Today, I return to civilization, to my sister, and my friends, I need to make it up to them. I was wearing my favorite black t-shirt, blue jeans and a blue jacket with an Absol on the back. I grabbed Anthony's pokeball and opened it, releasing the familiar, large green dragon. "We're flying to Undella today," I told him, jumping on his back. "Let's see how fast you've gotten," I added. He gave me an excited look through his red eye protectors, which told me to hang on. He shot upwards, sending my face into his back. "Wow, you've gotten faster, but let's slow the acceleration," I told him. He flew forwards, steadily gaining speed. "Have fun with it, just don't give me whiplash." I added. He definitely listened, he flew a greater pace, gracefully weaving in and out of buildings. He kept going after we got past the skyscrapers, which pierced the dark clouds. "Let's move faster Anthony, we don't want to fly in a thunder storm."

"Good, I was hoping you'd say that," he replied, rather relieved. He picked up pace rather suddenly, but it wasn't as bad as it had been previously. We flew for a few minutes longer. I looked back, past the white cloth from my suit that waved in the wind, I could see that we were slowing leaving behind the clouds, which had begun to drop rain upon the ground below. The ground had turned from dirt into sand, I signaled for Anthony to land, and he began to slow as came closer the ground. At the last second her swerved right, and avoided the red roof of the Undella Town Pokemon Center. He managed to fly over the rocks behind said building and land on the sand east of the town. I jumped off of him, landing a few feet from the ocean's edge.

"Thank you," I said, returning him back to his pokeball. The dark clouds that were close behind us had reached Undella Town, and threatening to rain with force. I walked the short distance from the landing point to the Center. Once I walked into the lobby it began to pour rain. Besides Nurse Joy at the counter and her Audino, the lobby was empty. I turned around as a girl walked through the door, she had long brown hair that reached her waist, and was covering one eye. The eye that was visible was hazel. I couldn't forget her face. "Hey Melissa," was all I could say before she slapped me in the face. I hadn't expected that. "I see, you're still as violent as ever." I joked, rubbing my cheek. She then slapped me again, this time on the other side of my face. I winced, she slaps hard. I looked up at her, to find that she had run out of the door again. I looked back at Nurse Joy, who was as dumbfounded as I.

The only answer I could provide her was a shrug. I sat down on of the few chairs they had there. I had to wait out the rain, besides she lives in Undella so I don't think that she'll go too far. "That isn't the first time she's slapped me, and chances are, it won't be the last." I told the nurse as we talked, trying to put her at ease, "and I'm pretty sure, I'm going to receive more when the others find out." I put my hand on my face and sighed. I sat there and talked to Nurse Joy for a couple hours. As rain had come to an end, I had to end the conversation. I walked out of the Pokemon Center, that sand had turned a dark gold. I didn't have to look far to find them, well more like they came to me. I was greeted by 3 slaps to the face in repetition and a punch to the lower jaw. "I saw that coming," I responded, looking back up at my attackers. Melissa was farthest to my left, Gretchen stood in the middle, her large nose cast a shadow over one of her brown eyes and like usual she had her light brown hair flying all over the place, and Anna and Tom, who were like usual right next to each other, they were easy see them being related. They both had short blond hair, and aside from Tom having green eyes instead of Anna having hazel eyes and the fact that her hair reached just below her shoulders, they were almost identical.

"You idiot!" Melissa leaned in and shouted right in my ear. I didn't move, as far as I know she would have slapped me again. "You disappear without a word, and come back a month later like it's nothing, not only that but you wouldn't even answer the Xtransceiver.

"I know that I disappeared for a while but it wasn't without word, I told Gretchen." I retorted, "Melissa, if I remember correctly, you wouldn't even be in the same room as me. When would I be able to tell you if you kept avoiding me?" I turned my attention to Anna and Tom, "as for you two, there is no excuse as to why I didn't tell you." I lowered my head. "The only reason I left, in the first place, was to get stronger, and get better control."

"Over what?" Tom asked, clueless as to what I was talking about.

"I might as well tell you since you're all here," I looked them dead in the eyes. "I have an alternate personality. Melissa, you saw what she's capable of."

"She?" Anna giggled.

"Yeah, she goes by Caligo," I responded seriously. "She's got unnatural strength too, she took over and killed Elliot and his crew." I looked directly at Anna who wasn't laughing anymore. "She killed him almost too easily, even I'm frightened at her power." I gave her the scariest glare I could, "It isn't funny." I soon realized that I was probably going overkill. "Sorry," I added looking back down. I continued standing there looking at the ground. I didn't want to sit down, else I mess up the suit, that and the sand was wet. "I'm not happy that I got up and left you all, but what else could I do? The last thing I wanted to do was more harm." I looked back up.

"You could have told us about Caligo sooner." Gretchen responded.

"Yeah, because you'd believe me, heck if I told myself that, I wouldn't believe it." I answered.

"Have some trust in us. I mean come on, we all trust you." Melissa replied.

"Then, how come you avoided me so much?" I questioned. She didn't answer, she didn't need to. "I'll be in town for a little while. With Elliot gone, I'm not sure what to do next." I sighed, "I have plenty of time to make it up to you." I looked up, in time to receive a hug from Melissa. "Huh?"

"You're making me feel bad." She responded. She pushed me away with a small smile, "It's supposed to be the other way around."

"I guess that this isn't how the overly violent one had it planned out." I joked.

"Shut up," she replied, giving me a good punch in the arm, "Who are you to call me overly violent anyway?"

"You keep hitting me." I laughed running away, as she chased with her fist raised. "Look out, she's proving my point," I shouted.

"Oh I'll prove you're point all right." She responded angrily. I stopped without warning, and caught her in a tight hug, when she was about to run into me.

"It's good to be back." I whispered to her. I looked to see that the others were staring. Anna looked as if she was moments away from attacking. "What?" I asked, "Is there something wrong?" I said the wrong thing, as Anna started slowly walking towards me, her fist trembling. "Well, it seems that I'm about to be murdered, so… yeah." I added before running for my life, Anna not far behind. I kept running until I realized that I was cornered, an ocean to my right, Anna behind me and a wall of stone blocking the other 2 sides. "What did I do?" I asked. The only answer I received was a punch to the face. She pulled her fist back, surprised to see me completely unfazed. I was surprised too, I thought she punched harder. "I did some training, and I received a lot of punches to the face when I sparred with Ty. Yours aren't as strong as a fully grown Typhlosion." I looked her directly in the eyes. "Are you going to tell me why you're angry, or do you intend to continue hitting me?" She looked away.

"I just don't like her having you wrapped around her finger," she replied before walking away. I tilted my head in confusion.

"Why would that bother her?" I thought, it made little sense to me. I followed her back to the group. I was surprised, not about what she'd said, I was surprised that I didn't die.

"Hey," Tom called, jokingly. "She didn't kill you." She punched him in the shoulder. "Ouch," he yelped, "What did I do?"

"I think that this group has grown too violent." I responded, rejoining Melissa, much to Anna's dismay. _Man, she's overprotective_. I looked at Melissa. "Why do so many people want to kill me? I could have a let's kill Troy event and there would be a line half a mile long." I joked.

"I personally think, it's because you antagonize people." Melissa responded.

"I can't say that you're wrong." I looked up at the sky, "Hey, it looks like it's going to rain again. I'm going to head back to the center." I started walking back to the Pokemon Center. "See you later." I added before walking through the doors.

I was sitting in the room I had booked at the center. There was one bed against the wall, with a lamp on both sides, and across the room, sat a dresser with a small television on top. My entire team was out. Of course, within half an hour somebody knocked on my door. "I was expecting you," I answered, opening the door.

"Were you now?" Melissa replied, standing in the hallway.

"Yes I was," I looked at the clock on my Xtransceiver, "Right on schedule."

"If you're going to talk like that I'll just stop coming by to visit."

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" I replied loudly. "Come on in," I said opening the door for her.

"Thank you," she replied, walking into the room, past Toby, and sitting on the bed.

"So what brings by?"

"You've been gone for a month, I want to catch up."

"Then why do we go out," I suggested.

"Like on a date?" she asked, blushing wildly.

"Yeah, I like you, as well, more than a friend. So-"

"Yes, I'll go out with you."

"I know the perfect place. Meet outside the center at around 8, okay?"

"Yeah, you got it." She left with a smile on her face.

"I might as well get ready," I muttered.


	25. Chapter 25

I walked into the Pokemon Center lobby. I had at least 15 minutes before the date. I looked out of the window, to see that Melissa was standing just outside the glass doors. "Hey," I asked as I met her outside, "You do know that you're 15 minutes early?"

"And you understand that the guy should arrive first?" she retorted.

"Yes, I understand that, that is why I'm here 15 minutes before hand. And You?"

"I just wanted to be here early. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Okay, well since we're here early, we can go early." I held out my arm to her, which she accepted and I led her onto Route 13. It was close to pitch black. I walked her to a small clearing at the top of one of the many hills. "We're here."

"I don't see anything other than trees." I pointed skyward, the sky was dark and the moon was painted a copper red.

"It's the sky, the moon, actually. A total lunar eclipse. I thought that we could watch this event together." I laid down in the dry grass. She followed, laying right next to me. I laughed a little. "The Lunatone in the area might like it, I guess." She gave me a puzzled look. "What? Lunatone get their power from the moon. When it's a full moon they're very powerful, so wouldn't they be even stronger during this eclipse?" I added.

"I'm not sure, I haven't thought about it until now." I turned to her.

"Oh I almost forgot," I added, handing her a small glass flower.

"Where'd you get this?"

"I made it with help from Roy." She held it up, staring into the distorted world shown within the sculpture. "It's my way of apologizing for leaving so suddenly."

"It's beautiful," she said, giving me a peck on the cheek.

"There is another reason I asked you out."

"And that is?"

"I'm going to leave Unova in a couple of days and travel the world, starting with Sinnoh since that's the first boat. I want to ask if you'll accompany me." She gave me a big smile.

"Just you and I?"

"I'm going to at least let the others know, but yeah, just us. So?"

"Yes," she replied, smiling. I continued to watch, as the moon began to turn back to its normal greyish color.

"We'll be taking a cruise liner from Castelia City tomorrow evening." I added. The memory of her being completely terrified at me, from about a month ago, replayed itself in my head. "Stop that," I scolded myself in my head, "You need to stop that." I pretty much brought about my own demise at Anna's hands. "Anna is going to kill me," I silently added.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." She gave me a skeptical look. "Really, it's of no importance." She continued. "Fine, if you must know, I was making a remark about how I could stay here forever." She held me to that, we did stay there the whole night, stargazing. To say the least, it was a nice night.

* * *

I met the others outside the center the next day and told them about the plans. "You shouldn't be so trusting." Anna pouted. "I want to come along."

"Don't you trust me not to do something stupid?" I asked her.

"I trust you, it's her I don't trust." She replied pointing towards Melissa.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Melissa questioned, now angry.

"Please," I interrupted, trying to keep the peace. "Stop arguing. We still have a few hours before we need to leave." Anna proceeded to take my Xtransceiver and began typing on it. "Um… please tell me what you are doing."

"I'm exchanging our numbers, last time you disappeared without word. This time if something happens or you feel like letting us know that you haven't died, you can." She replied, returning the watch to me.

"Ah, that makes sense." I put it back on my wrist. As it turned out they had set up a going away party. It was pretty fun, until some random guy crashed it, I'm pretty sure he was a crazy hobo, he definitely looked like how I'd imagine one. Torn up clothing, throwing stuff and yelling nonsense. To which Anna replied by throwing the man into the ocean. He didn't seem to mind, however he just began yelling gibberish about a Magikarp and swam away, in the same motion that a Magikarp would.

"The weird guy was a nice touch," I joked to Tom.

"I can't believe that Anna wasn't against it," he replied going along with the joke. But it had to come to an end as the time for our departure had come.


	26. Chapter 26

We boarded the cruise ship, having already said our goodbyes and flown to Castelia. I had put on a black shirt, and blue jeans. Melissa was wearing a flowery dress. After checking our tickets, the guy at the counter handed us the room keys and let us into the ship's lobby. We walked around the decks until the boat began to leave port and everyone was asked to go to their cabins. Melissa left to "take care of something," as she put it. So I proceeded to the room, and once inside began to clean the blades of my scythe. It had become routine since the last fight with Elliot. The door closed as Melissa entered the room, seemingly unaware of my presence. She grabbed a shirt out of her bag and, facing the opposite wall, began to remove her shirt. I tapped my foot on the ground 3 times, trying to inform her of my attendance. She slowly looked over, luckily before she took off too much, her face turned a bright red.

She fixed her shirt, ran over and slapped me in the face, hers still red. "Ouch," I asked after she slapped me, "What did I do?"

"You know what you did." She replied turning away from me.

"This is the room number they gave me. So, I'm not exactly sure… Wait, let me see your room key." She handed me the card, as I fished mine out of my pocket. "I see, they booked us in the same room. Well, at least it isn't some stranger."

"Sorry," she apologized, sitting down on one of the two beds.

"For the slap? Don't worry about it, you didn't know."

"Alright passengers, you may now leave your cabins, I repeat, you may now leave your cabins," the announcer's voice rang out from the speaker.

"Just do me a favor, don't change in the middle of the room. Perhaps the bathroom?" I added, laughing slightly.

"Shut up," she answered, not amused.

"Don't worry, it won't be funny when Sam hears of it and stomps my face in." I joked. "I heard that there is going to be a tag battle tournament on the boat. I was wondering," I said changing the subject, "If you would like to be my teammate."

"I don't have anything planned, so sure." She replied smiling. "Which pokemon should I use?"

"Each trainer will use 2 pokemon, so how about Shedinja and Magmar? I'll use Jess, and Alexis." I suggested.

"Oh I get why, you want Shedinja and Jess to work together so that the opponents can't land a hit. Magmar and Alexis will cover each other's weaknesses."

"Well that, and I wanted to have a chance to battle with you. It would be interesting."

"What is with guys and battles?"

"Come on, admit it, you've thought about it too."

"Well not about that in particular," she replied hiding her face.

"Hey, what's on your mind?"

"It's nothing," she answered still hiding her face, and not doing a good job at it.

"Then why are you blushing?" I asked, smiling.

"I'm not," she added before jumping under the blankets on the bed she was sitting on. I sighed and sat down on the other bed. I looked out of the window.

"Good idea, I'm going to go to bed too." I added before sleeping in the bed I sat down on.

"Hey," I said shaking the form that was under the blankets, "It's 9:30 the tournament starts in half an hour."

"I know that," Melissa spoke, walking out from the bathroom.

"If you're there," I started pointing to Melissa. "Then who is this?" I moved the covers to reveal a girl, with short blonde hair, sleeping face-down under the blankets. I looked over to Melissa inquiringly, who replied with a shrug. "So there is a random girl sleeping in your bed and you don't notice at all."

"She wasn't here when I woke up."

"Hmm, so what do we do?"

"Flip her over?"

"I'll give it a shot," I replied, rolling the unconscious body over. "Well I know who it is."

"Who?"

"It's Anna," I answered, putting the blankets on her. I checked the time again. "We better get going, we'll figure out what to do with her when we get back." I added with a softer expression. We walked to the sign-in table, with 5 minutes to spare. We walked over to the television screen that showed the line-up. It only showed pictures of the entrants, not giving showing their names. "It looks like we're going up against those two," I said, motioning to two guys with brown hair, twins from the looks of it, who were sitting next to each-other. They were watching us, like a Pidgeot would watch a Caterpie. We sat in the chairs farthest away from them, and waited for our turn to battle. We were the 3rd battle. Luckily, the two before us were one-sided, so we got to battle less than 10 minutes later.

"Would the contestants for the next battle take to the field?" The announcer, well… announced over the speakers.

"On the red side, it is Melissa and Troy, and on the blue side, it is Steve and Jack. I could see the two exchange a smile, as the announcer indicated the beginning of the battle.

"Jess, let's begin." I called, as the Walrein was released from her pokeball.

"You too, Shedinja." Melissa added, calling forth the shell. I gave her a smile, before turning my attention to the Liepard and Stoutland that had taken the field.

"Liepard, Fake Out," Steve called, or maybe it was Jack, I couldn't tell. The large cat raced towards Jess, only to bounce off Shedinja, whose Wonder Guard ability prevented it from getting past.

"Melissa, let's end this quickly." I suggested, to which she nodded in reply.

"Okay Shedinja, Shadow Sneak." Shedinja disappeared into its shadow and rose up behind the other two, using its halo to restrain them the best it could.

"Jess use Blizzard." I ordered. She shot an ice-cold stream of air at them, freezing the opponents but not Shedinja, who was again protected by its ability. The opponents being completely frozen, Shedinja released them, and floated back over to our side. "Use Ice Ball on Shedinja," I added. She rolled into a ball and encasing herself in ice, bowled into Shedinja four times, bouncing off each time. "Now turn it, on the others." She began her charge towards the poke-sicle.

"Shedinja, Giga Impact as well," Melissa ordered. The shell became cloaked in a purple-white light, and rushed alongside Jess at the opponents. Both attacks smashed the pokemon free and knocked them unconscious at the same time. We returned our pokemon, and shook hands in the middle of the field, before the announcer made us leave so the next of the first 8 battles could commence.

"I think she's woken up," I told Melissa, gesturing towards the zombielike Anna, walking through the lobby.

"Hey Anna," Melissa called, running up to her. Anna turned her head and response, and took tried to run. I ran parallel to her, while Melissa chased her. She ran through a couple hallways before she lost Melissa. She got halfway down one, before stopping to catch her breath. I snuck up behind her, which was fairly easy and grabbed her shoulder.

"Hi Anna," I said in the creepiest voice I could. She jumped, and almost ran again, had Melissa not have caught up to her.

"You've got some explaining to do." Melissa added, joining in with the creepy voices.

"You told us how you followed us, now tell us why."

"Because it's fun traveling with you, besides I don't trust you alone for that long with her." I let out a short laugh.

"It seems that nobody trusts me. So, tell me where's Tom?"

"What makes you think that he came with me?"

"The fact that you two are almost always next to each other, it's a little weird sometimes." Her face visibly turned red.

"How is that weird?"

"I just find it a bit weird," I answered. "So where on this boat is he?"

"I don't know." I face palmed.

"Okay, wait a minute… why were you in Melissa's bed this morning?"

"How'd-"

"We hadn't left yet," I interrupted her. She snapped her fingers.

"Darn, I knew something wasn't right."

"Yeah, I'm being stalked by a crazy person who is dragging along her brother."

"What did you call me?" she angrily asked me, threatening violence.

"It's just a joke, relax," I replied, waving my hands in front of me.

"We better get back," Melissa warned.

"We'll sort this all out later." I added, before following Melissa back towards the lobby.

We got to checked the line ups, we were going to battle, a guy who looks like he may be military and a girl who looked to be a biker of some sort, normally you don't see them fighting together so it was a little strange. We watched the one battle that was before us before we headed to the field and began the battle. I was about to throw Alexis' pokeball when the boat suddenly changed direction or something, and I had to stop myself from falling on the deck. I could see smoke rising from behind one of the buildings. "Attention passengers, we have been attacked by pirates, yep pirates. For those of you who thought they no longer existed in this day and age, you were wrong." The captain announced. I followed the smoke to where a large ship, had smashed most of the deck that was visible. There we pirates, I presume running from the larger ship onto our slightly smaller ship. I switched Alexis' pokeball with Roy's he's more suited for fighting large groups. I released him from the ball, to which the 'pirates' responded with their own pokemon.

"Roy, let's give them a taste of Hurricane." I commanded. Roy flapped his wings, creating multiple large tornados that launched the pirates into the ocean. We reached the center of the boat, searching for a captain or someone. He found me, actually and bringing a couple clichés along with him, as he was dressed like you'd picture a pirate captain, the strange hat and the torn dirty clothing, and his crew rolled up 4 cannons. How he got cannons I don't know, but they were cannons alright.

"Fire at will," he ordered. One of the cannons fired, only to embed itself in the boat it was fired from. I threw out Gabriel, I haven't done any training to specifically teach her how to smash cannons, but I assume that she can handle it easily.

"This is why we can't have nice things," I joked, as 2 of the cannons fired at me. Jumping out of the way, I could only watch as the cannonballs hit each other and one ricocheted into Melissa. I could only watch as the projectile hit her in the chest, causing her to collapse on the ground. Everything became a blur, the ship, the cannonball that whizzed past my head, embedding itself in the steel building behind me. I clenched my hand into a fist tight enough that my hand started bleeding. "I'm going to kill you." I warned the captain.

I called Gabriel over to my side as she finished smashing the last cannon. "Swing your tail at me, don't hold back. I have an idea." I muttered to her. She wasn't too keen to the idea, but she swung her tail at me without question. I jumped onto her tail, and using it as a makeshift catapult, launched myself at the captain. He tried to run out of the collision course, but too late. I flying side kicked him square in the chest, launching him over the fence, along with me. I caught the fence with my right hand before I fell overboard, I heard a not too pleasant pop, and it began to cause me a lot of pain. I grabbed the fence with my left arm, and pulled myself back onto the ship. I looked back overboard, to see the shell-shocked captain, swimming in the water and probably in a lot of pain. "Roy use Bug Buzz, I want him to realized how much trouble he's in." He shot the sound waves at the captain, who didn't seem affected by it at all. "Hmm… I see," I muttered before walking over to Melissa who was still collapsed on the ground. "Roy, go to the infirmary and get someone, Gabriel, if anyone you presume dangerous for any reason approached, don't hold back." Roy, nodded in response before flying off. Gabriel took a few steps back and glared at everybody, who was anywhere near us. I knelt down beside her and waited. Roy returned a little while later, with a doctor in tow. He picked up pace, when he saw us.

"I'm sorry to say this," the doctor told me, while I still knelt next to Melissa. "But she's gone." I didn't leave her side, not by choice, I was dragged to my cabin by Gabriel after the doctor fixed my arm. I didn't want to believe the doctor but I had no choice. Melissa was dead, and it's my fault. I refused to leave my cabin, for the rest of the day, my team tried to comfort me, but I still refused to leave. That night as I laid on my side, on the bed, someone knocked on the door. It was followed by the sound of it silently being opened. "Troy," Anna whispered to me, avoiding the pokemon sprawled throughout the room.

"Yeah," I responded, as she continued into the room. She laid down next to me, facing the opposite direction. I didn't turn to face her. I spent I don't know how long, just thinking. There wasn't much else I could do. I looked over to see her already fast asleep. "When did she fall asleep?" I asked. I walked over to the other bed, and slipped under the covers, and fell asleep.

**Secret Hideout **

There was a group of people gathered in a circle, there were 8 people there, though the room was too dark to see anybody. "How are our plans progressing?" One very masculine voice asked.

"All according to plan," A female responded. "He is completely unaware of our plans and of the Dark Solons. He'll be arriving at the point of interest, on the day we predicted."

"Why are we going through all of our trouble for this?" another voice rang out.

"Because," the girl snapped in response, her voice becoming softer as she spoke the rest of the statement. "He's the one picked at his hand, as the perfect candidate. We already know what he'll do. Besides, he's already proven himself useful."


	27. Chapter 27

The first thing I see when I woke up was Anna, still asleep. Within a couple seconds, Sam realized that I was awake and put her face inches away from mine. "Morning," I greeted her. To which she responded with a silent flick of her ears. We had reached a standstill, waiting for the other to make a move, as if it were a psychological game of chess.

"When?" She asked, a couple minutes of silence later.

"When did she get here? Last night whilst you slept." I replied.

"You had better not have-"

"I didn't. I have had more than enough opportunities before this. I'm pretty sure I've proven myself."

"Nonetheless, I'm still going to keep an eye on you." At that remark, Anna stirred from her slumber.

"Morning," I told her. She looked over to the clock on the table.

"It feels as if I hadn't slept at all."

"I've been there before." I replied, checking the time as well.

"Ah 7:30, then I'm just going to sleep a little longer." She added, before going back to sleep.

"So what is it with you two?" Sam asked, continuing the interrogation.

"Um… I'm don't think that it's anything." I replied, before yawning. "I think that I'll sleep a little longer too."

I checked the time again. "10:30," I stated, before sitting up in my bed. Most of the team was awake by now. I looked over to see Gabriel curiously poking Anna's cheek with her giant metal arm. "What are you doing?" I asked, causing her to jump.

"Oh Troy… I didn't know you were awake." She replied.

"I see you moved on quickly," Ty added, with a wink.

"What… Dang it, get your head out of the gutter, man." I responded.

"Well, this isn't the first time that you've had a girl sleep in the same room as you." Roy added. I brought my hand to my forehead.

"I am well aware of this, but I'm not stupid." I retorted, a little offended.

"You know, I can hear you." Anna stated, sitting up. "And we didn't do anything."

"Thank you." I replied, "Although I'd prefer it if you would stop coming into my room at 11 in the evening and kicking me out of my bed." I added, laughing a little.

"Yeah… well," She added rubbing the back of her head. "Tom was only able to get a cabin because someone offered to share with him. I didn't have that luxury."

"Well, I'm glad you trust me." I answered. "Now I have the go ahead to grab my scythe and brutally murder you while you sleep." They all looked at me like I was crazy. "It's a joke, relax." I added. They all sighed in unison. "Now I'm offended that you took that statement seriously." I added.

"Well, it isn't as much you as Caligo."

I shrugged, "She isn't that crazy."

"Yeah, not from what I've heard," she replied skeptically.

"Hey, that guy started it." She looked at me confused, by the looks of it. "It's another joke," I stated trying to put her at ease. "Man I'm not going to joke around if you all take it so seriously."

"Good, I don't think it suits your personality." Sapphira chimed in.

"Okay, can we move onto something else now?"

"There are a couple of things I'd like to talk to you about," she replied, walking over to me. "In private," she whispered.

"Of course there is." I sighed, returning my team. "So?" I asked, the room visibly emptier.

"You seem a little too happy today." I felt my face turn more serious.

"Since that day," I stated mentioning the day I lost my family. "I've felt that I could face death at any moment, and gladly bring any and all of my regrets with me. If feels as though this is just another one. So for now, I'll just put on a happy face. After all, I can't call it a good life if I spend it sulking." I let out a fake smile.

"You shouldn't do that." She stated. "Without some pain, how would you know if you were truly alive? Don't pretend it doesn't exist or else you'll forget how it feels to truly live." I was completely speechless, she leaned in a kissed me on my cheek. I jerked back. "Consider that an apology for kicking you out of your bed."

"Did you plan this from the start, or are you just taking advantage of the recent events?"

"A little bit of both." She added, with a quiet giggle.

"So then… what is up?" I awkwardly asked.

"Oh well…" She began, unsure of how to reply. "I'm just hanging around, I didn't have any plans." She shrugged.

"Well, neither do I." I added. "Do you want to go find Tom?"

"Nah," she replied, grabbing my arm.

"Ouch," I winced. She released her grip.

"Your arm still hurt?"

"Yeah," I replied. "A little bit. I laid down on the bed. "I think that I'm going to sleep a little more."

"Argh, what a bore."

"The past couple of days have been more hectic than they should." I added, before falling asleep a couple of minutes later.

I sleepily opened my eyes. Standing in front of me was my team, some of which were obviously fighting back laughter. "Wha?" I asked. I looked over to see Anna passed out next to me. I couldn't help but chuckle at it. She half woke up, looked me dead in the face with a small smile. "Morning."

"What's going on?" She asked sleepily. I turned to Ty, who was hiding behind Anthony.

"What is going on?" I asked them.

"We're just keeping an eye on you and your girlfriend," Roy answered, causing Ty to break out into a fit of laughter.

"What? She's not… Ugh, I give up, just… for about how long?" I stuttered, obviously embarrassed.

"About 10 minutes." Sapphira chimed in.

"You're getting a good laugh out of this aren't you, Ty?" I questioned.

"Yep," he answered, his fit of laughter fading.

"Hey Anna," I said, turning to face her. "Can I have my arm back?"

"Oh sorry," she apologized before releasing my arm.

"I'm going to get something to eat," I stated sitting up. "Do you want to come with?"

"Sure," she replied. I put on my favorite blue jacket. We made our way to the cafeteria. We sat a table and chatted for a good half an hour, before Tom found us.

"Hey, you got… to help… me man." He said, breathing heavily.

"With?" I questioned.

"This crazy chic is following me everywhere and I can't shake her." He looked behind his back. "It's her," he silently yelled, jumping under the table. She walked over to us, asked if we knew where he went, and when I replied no without looking at her, ran off in search of him. I knocked on the table top, as if were a door.

"You can come out now, she left." He poke his head out from underneath the cloth that covered the table, and checked the surroundings before stepping out.

"Hey Anna you find somebody who'll share a room with you?" Tom asked nonchalantly, after seating himself at the table. She pointed at me, as she continued chewing on the fish. Tom's expression immediately darkened. "You better not try anything." He warned, sounding as threatening as he could.

"Dude, really?" I asked flatly. "I could have if I wanted to, but I'm just not that kind of guy. You know this."

"Nevertheless, just don't bro." he responded. "How'd you like it if I did that with your sister?"

"I'm not doing nothing with your sister. Nor do I have any intentions to, so relax man." I replied. He gave me a glare before changing the conversation to an unrelated topic, as if nothing happened.


	28. Chapter 28

It's been about a week since the cruise started, and it ended earlier today. Mainly it consisted of Tom avoiding his stalker, and Anna and I helping him when we could, there was a bit of tomfoolery and shenanigans, other than that we relaxed. We were dropped off in Sunnyshore City. "Okay," I said as we stepped off the boat. "I was going to take on the Sunnyshore Gym today, but-" Tom and Anna began looking around for me.

"Troy, where'd you go?" Anna asked. I reached my hand out of the sand.

"I found a hole," I blankly stated, as Anna and Tom helped me out of the out of sand trap. "It's our first day back on land, so I thought that we should enjoy being back on land." I wiped the sand that had collected, off.

"It's a lot like Undella here." Tom added, stretching his arms. He was obviously glad to be free.

"Here it is, but the rest of Sinnoh is colder, especially when you head north or up Mount Coronet."

"So, is there anything you have in mind?" Tom asked.

"Nope, it's really up to you. I'm probably just going to hang around the beach today."

"And I'll be joining you." Anna added.

"Looks like I am as well." Tom added, putting his hands in his pockets.

I had changed into a pair of blue swim trunks, and was lying on the beach, underneath some sand, waiting for Anna and Tom, while petting Toby behind his head blade. I had already release my team so that they could enjoy themselves. Ty was sparring with Anthony. Gabriel, Sapphira, and Alexis were down the beach chatting away. Ed and Roy being socially awkward as they are just hovered/flew around. Sam and George were lying on the beach. And Jess was teaching some of the wild pokemon moves like; Aqua Tail or Ice Beam, etc. Most of her 'students' were Magikarp, Tentacool and a few other species. Although, she seems to have taken a shining to a young Lapras, who even though it was a child, he caught onto the moves fairly quickly.

_I'm just going to give up on people, at least for a little bit._ I wordlessly decided. Next thing I know, in flies Anna, I mean that literately. I think she tripped. Anyways, I tried moving out of the way at the last second, which was a bad idea, as she fell on me and slammed her elbow directly into my neck. Quite frankly, it hurt, a lot. "Hey Anna… would you mind… removing your arm… from my neck? It's a bit difficult… to breath." I gasped. She got off of me, coving her mouth with a face of shock, I think.

"Are you okay?" she asked, obviously worried.

"Yeah," I replied rubbing my neck. "But, besides an additional pain in my neck, I'm okay." Toby, who was now standing beside me, without speaking, gave a face that obviously was asking if my head was still attached. "It's all okay," I assured him. "It'll take more than an elbow to the neck to kill me." Ty was cracking up, well until Anthony took the chance and slammed his tail right into his face. Tom was also laughing at it as much as Ty, expect he didn't receive a Flygon tail to the face.

"Maybe, I won't have to keep you from making a move on her." He said wiping away a tear from laughing so much. "She might end up killing you before you get the chance." Anna who was still sitting next to me, kicked Tom's feet out from under him, causing him to fall on his face.

"I'm not that clumsy," she replied acting offended, I'm not sure if she really was or if she was just acting. I don't think Tom could tell either. Now that I she wasn't attempting to decapitate me, I could see that she was wearing a red bikini. I could see Alexis, Gabriel and Sapphira giggling too.

"I'm probably never going to hear the end of this." I thought knowing that they'll be laughing about this for a while. I'm just going to go try and wait out the embarrassment in the ocean. I decided, before jumping in the light blue water. I had only my nose and eyes above the water. Not long after Anna followed, and found me rather quickly.

"Tell me, what do you think?" She asked after an awkward moment of silence.

"Of what?"

"My swimsuit, do you think it suits me?"

"I… well… err…"

I was spared death when Sam shouted, "At least I have legs," at Alexis, who must have been arguing with her. That was a bad idea. Normally, Alexis tends to be kind, but when somebody mentions her no longer having legs, she goes insane. She had extreme pride in being able to run as fast as she did and was devastated when she lost them through evolution. I looked over to see Alexis holding Sam's front legs together. Sam who was on her side retaliated by kicking her off with her free legs. I ran out of the water, and immediately began trying to pull them apart. Luckily, Ty and Anthony helped me separate them.

"Okay what happened?" I asked, now that they weren't killing each other. They both started speaking at once, which was impossible to understand. "One at a time, please." I clarified.

A couple hours later. We were pretty much enjoying Sinnoh's beach. Alexis' and Sam's argument had reached a peaceful ending. I was lying on the beach, with my blue jacket draped over my head. I jumped out from under my jacket, when Anna let out a blood-curdling scream. There were 2 hooded figures chasing after her and Tom. They noticed me and one ran at me. I immediately hook-kicked him in the chest. I could hear the sound of something shattering, before he, clutching his chest, retreated. The other one, kicked me square in the jaw, knocking me on my butt. "We'll be at Spear Pillar, waiting for you." He stated, before running after his comrade. After they left, I checked the ground where I kicked the first one. I quickly found what must have shattered.

"Glass shards? Why did he have glass?" I questioned inspecting the red tainted shards. "He must have be cut by the other shards when I kicked him." I silently laughed, "Stupid move on his part." I quickly remembered the words the larger guy said before he left. "Spear Pillar… must be an interesting place." I stood up facing the large mountain known as Coronet. "Tom, Anna, we're going to have to skip the gym for now, something has come up." I told them. Tom was breathing heavily, and Anna just responded with a nod, she knew what I meant.


	29. Chapter 29

"We finally made it," Tom rejoiced. We spent a good 5-6 hours climbing Mount Coronet. Anna had opted for a pink coat, Tom had a blue one, and mine was black. Jess slid by.

"I'm glad that she's getting to enjoy herself during this little excursion." I stated. We climbed the few steps that separated the cave we just exited and the Spear Pillar. "I don't see anybody." I blankly stated, looking around for the thugs who attacked us earlier.

"Guess again." I turned to see somebody holding knives to Anna's and Tom's throats. _It was obviously a trap, we were well aware of this but there are more than expected. There are 6 people here._

"Where are the other two?" one person asked. They replied with a shrug. "Then go find them now," they added, pointing to 2 other people. _So then, it looks like those two took care of the missing thugs when getting into position._

Play it." The person behind me commanded, "Or you'll get to see how these 2 look headless." They threw a bluish flute at me, which I caught before it would have hit me in the face. Jess made her way over to my side. _All this for a song on this flute? What is going on? _"Now." _Man, I'm in no position to argue. I don't think I have much of a choice. _

"Let me play it." Caligo ordered from within my head.

"You can play the flute?" I asked.

"Yeah, I can teach you sometime."

"Fine," I sighed. Caligo began to play it, I could hear the marvelous sound of the flute. _Nothing happened_… "Here," I replied throwing it back to them. One of which caught it.

"Nothing happened…" One of them stated. There was a bit of mumbling in the group.

"Shut-" The one who threw the flute at me in the first place started, before pausing midsentence. A large white portal, with a golden outline materialized. A large white and grey creature with a large, golden ring around its abdomen. "Kill them," The person holding the flute ordered. I looked over to see the hooded figures struggling to even hold their weapons. "DO IT!" He repeated.

"We can't something's stopping us." One of them responded before the ground beneath him collapsed, causing him and the other one to fall in.

"What the-" another person began before being run down by Ty, who was using Flame Wheel. Another 2 people fell victim to an explosion caused by a Dragon Pulse, which Anthony had fired as he descended from the sky. I threw off my bag.

"We anticipated an attack by 2 people, which is why you were down 2 from the start. We didn't count on such large numbers or _that_," I added pointing toward the pokemon, who was being to smash the remains of Spear Pillar. The remaining hooded figure, unsheathed a curved sword that was hidden underneath their cloak. I grabbed my scythe in both hands. I was about to engage the opponent, when 3 more portals appeared, one was a light blue, another was black with a dark purple outline and the last was a pink. A large blue pokemon with, what appeared to be metal extending from bits of its body and a blue gemstone in its chest, flew out of the light blue portal and landed loudly on the ground. A large pink and white pokemon with a large pink gemstone on each shoulder, as it walked on two legs, appeared from the pink portal. From the dark purple portal, appeared a large yellowish pokemon, with large black wings and 6 legs.

"Those are the 4 pokemon of Sinnoh legend," Tom murmured, staring at the four. "The blue one is Dialga, who controls time. The pink one is Palkia, who controls space. The yellow one is Giratina, ruler of the Reverse World. Finally, the large white one with the yellow ring is Arceus."

"I see, so we're facing a god here." I replied. Palkia, as Tom had called it, looked over its shoulder at me.

"We'll deal with you later." It warned before turning back to Arceus. Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, looked among each other before nodding and initiating battle with Arceus. I looked back at the hooded figure, just in time to bring my scythe up to stop them from cutting open my head.

"What a shame, I was hoping that I could get you back for stabbing me with that shard of glass." The person taunted. _At least I found them. _Ty fired a Flamethrower at them, who avoided the brunt of the attack, but managed to get their cloak to combust. Throwing off the burning cloth, the person revealed their identity to me. They, well she as it became clear, thanks to the long brown hair, began to laugh. "I see, well at least I'll be able to fight you without hiding anything." She rose her head, so that her face was visible. She had one eye covered by her brown hair, I could tell who it was almost immediately. It was Melissa. "I played you so well, that you incapable of noticing the fact that I was using you the whole time. Everything went exactly as planned." She stated proudly. Caligo was laughing too, I don't know if she thought it was funny or what.

"You know, she is right." Caligo stated. It made sense to me now, the weird people were just keeping an eye on the plan, the pirate ship was implemented so that she could escape and continue executing the plan, without worry. _Wait, the glass shards, it was from the apology gift I gave her. _She played it so well, I wasn't able to not just see this coming, but say that she could do anything bad. I too, was about to laugh until I brought my attention back to Melissa, in time to catch Anna punching her full-power in her face.

"You little-" Anna shouted, before Tom dragged her away. I walked over to Melissa who was on the ground unconscious. _So much for a final battle._ I kicked the sword away from her. _Unconscious or not I still won't trust her now. _

"At least, you've learned something," Caligo commented. _I'm not sure that I should be taught to trust nobody. After all, I still have some people I can trust._ I looked over to the battle between the giants. Giratina had completely disappeared. Palkia fired a light blue orb, Aura Sphere I believe, at Arceus, who turned pink and the attack exploded doing almost nothing to it. Suddenly Giratina appeared, and slammed into Arceus, sending it backwards. Dialga had taken the opportunity to fire a Roar of Time at Arceus. Palkia accompanied it with Spatial Rend. Both attacks made contact, causing Arceus to collapse. Ty, Anthony, Jess and Anna's Gothitelle, were guarding us from any stray attacks. Arceus stood back up, this time more composed.

"Now that we've brought Arceus back to his senses, we should deal with the idiot who summoned him." Giratina stated. He lowered his head to me. "You're coming with us."

"I understand," I answered before stepping forward with my head lowered. I sent out my team, before handing their pokeballs to Tom and Anna. "I'm going, alone." I said

"N-No," Anna objected beginning to tear up. "You can't."

"I must, I'm the one who caused this problem." I looked over my team. "Toby, Ty, Roy, Anthony, Alexis, Sam, George, Ed, Sapphira, Gabriel, Jess," I listed them off from left to right. I could feel the portal that Arceus came through behind me. White arms reached out from the portal and began to slowly drag me in. "I'm proud of all of you." I stated. "I'm glad to have met you all. I'm sorry." I added before being pulled completely into the portal by the white arms. The last thing I saw, was the teary-eyed faces of my team, Anna and Tom, who simply stood in a salute. _I never would have thought that there would be this much of a reaction. It kind of makes me glad_.

**The End**


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